UK backs Ukraine's fast-track accession to NATO but US and Germany concerned over early membership

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly says London is in favor of offering Ukraine a shorter route to join the NATO military alliance, as the issue has caused divisions among the member states ahead of a summit next month.

Speaking on the sidelines of the two-day Ukraine Recovery conference in London, Cleverly said the UK government would support proposals to allow Kiev to skip a so-called Membership Action Plan (MAP) in order to join the US-led alliance.

Under the MAP, a program which was launched by the alliance in 1999, aspiring countries need to meet NATO standards and prepare for future membership.

“We have seen Ukraine evolve and evolve quickly," Cleverly said, adding that Kiev has "demonstrated their commitment to military reform required for NATO membership through their actions on the battlefield, and I think all NATO allies recognize that.”

Cleverly also referred to remarks by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who said that Kiev already meets “many of the requirements” of the membership action plan.

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Ukraine was last offered NATO membership back in 2008 on the condition it met the terms set out in an action plan. The country has been involved in a military conflict with Russia since February last year. Ever since, the West has been providing Kiev with military equipment worth tens of billions of dollars.

The issue of the terms of the action plan has been dividing allies before a NATO summit next month in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius.

There have been concerns in the US and Germany that early NATO membership for Ukraine might provoke Russia, and change the alliance's structure.

US President Joe Biden said on Saturday that his administration would not “make it easy” for Ukraine to join the military bloc.

France, however, appears to favor the idea to advance Ukraine's membership.

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French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on Wednesday that she "see[s] a possibility that the MAP is not any longer a stage of that route, that roadmap to accession."

"We are a long way from 2008. Time has passed, the situation is quite different," she added.

Natalia Halibarenko, the ambassador of Ukraine to NATO, said Wednesday that the upcoming NATO summit must offer a certain commitment or guarantee of future membership for Kiev.

The NATO chief, however, noted that the formal invitation of Ukraine to NATO will not be discussed at the summit in Vilnius.

Russia has been repeatedly warning US-led NATO forces against the alliance’s eastward expansion.

Moscow launched the military campaign in Ukraine in February last year, with NATO’s eastward expansion blamed for it.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also repeatedly railed against the West for driving NATO's eastward expansion, especially its courting of ex-Soviet republics such as Ukraine and Georgia.

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