A US official on Wednesday offered vague details about the reforms the United States says are necessary for Ukraine to join NATO a day after the alliance issued a joint communiqué lacking a specific pathway or timeline for the war-torn country’s eventual membership.
“Ukraine still needs to make a number of reforms in order to join,” National Security Council senior director for Europe Amanda Sloat told reporters.
“We recognize that Ukraine has already made significant progress in terms of reforms … But as both the President [Joe Biden] has said, and as the communiqué made clear, there is still the need for Ukraine to take further democratic and security sector reforms. The President has been clear that we think Ukraine can get there. But that is still going to be a requirement for Ukraine to join.”
Sloat described the communiqué as a “strong, positive message reaffirming that Ukraine will become a member of the alliance,” noting that the Membership Action Plan (MAP) was no longer required for Ukraine to join.
But, she said, there are a “series of governance and security sector reforms” that Washington is working on with Kyiv and with NATO more broadly, pointing to the “annual national program” document drafted by Ukraine and reviewed by allies’ foreign ministers each year.
Pressed again for any specific example of the reforms the alliance is looking for, she said the US is taking its lead from Ukraine.
“As we saw with the discussions on the communiqué, everything coming out of the alliance remains a consensus decision, as I have said on the annual national program, part of this is for Ukraine to identify the reforms and the progress that it plans to make and things that it plans to address,” she said.
