Ukraine is too corrupt to join NATO, the United States will tell its leader Volodymyr Zelensky, in a major blow to his nation’s security ambitions.
The defence bloc will request at its annual summit next week in Washington DC that Ukraine take “additional steps before formal membership talks move forward,” a senior US official said. the Telegraph.
Zelensky has been pushing for NATO membership after Russia’s brutal invasion ends to protect against future invasions, as the pact obliges its members to militarily defend allies if they are attacked.
But corruption, among other problems, has been a major thorn in the Ukrainian leader’s side, preventing the development of greater relations with the West.
In 2022, after Ukraine formally applied to join the EU, the European Commission wrote about Ukraine that while “preventing and combating corruption has been particularly high on the Ukrainian reform agenda since the Revolution of Dignity” in 2014, “corruption remains a serious challenge.”
Volodymyr Zelensky (pictured) has been pushing for NATO membership after Russia’s brutal invasion ends to protect against future invasions.
The defence bloc will request at its annual summit next week in Washington DC that Ukraine take “additional steps before formal membership talks move forward” (File image)
Vladimir Putin (pictured) meets China in Kazakhstan today to discuss defence and security.
Joe Biden’s administration (pictured) says Ukraine is still too corrupt to join NATO
Zelensky appears to be tackling the problem head-on, particularly in the military. In September, he fired his six deputy defense ministers without explanation, weeks after dismissing his top defense minister.
The US has acknowledged its efforts, with one State Department official telling the Telegraph: “We have to step back and applaud everything Ukraine has done in the name of reform over the last two-plus years.”
“As they continue with these reforms, we would like to congratulate them and discuss the additional measures that need to be taken, particularly in the area of the fight against corruption. This is a priority for many of us at this table,” the source added.
NATO has given Ukraine a list of reforms it will need to undertake before qualifying for membership, and officials said Zelensky was working on it.
“That’s something NATO has been doing quietly and under the radar, which helps them get closer to membership,” one source said.
While Ukraine is trying to strengthen its relations with the West, Putin is doing the same with China. The despot is meeting Xi Jinping today at a Eurasian security and defence club in Kazakhstan.
As Ukraine works to improve its relations with the West, Putin does the same with China
An infantryman trains with a T-80 tank as the war between Russia and Ukraine continues in the Donetsk region.
Infantry secures the area for the 3rd Assault Brigade at dusk on July 1, 2024 in the Kharkiv region
Putin and the Chinese president have expanded the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a club founded in 2001 with Russia, China and Central Asian powers, to include India, Iran and Pakistan as a counterweight to the West.
Putin will hold a series of bilateral meetings on Wednesday on the sidelines of the July 3-4 SCO summit in the Kazakh capital Astana, the Kremlin said.
He will meet Xi, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and the leaders of Azerbaijan, Mongolia and Pakistan before an informal dinner hosted by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
India said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is expected to arrive in Moscow later this month, will not attend. It will send External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar instead.
Russia and China view the SCO, which promotes common approaches to external security threats such as drug trafficking and focuses on countering any internal instability, as a means of projecting their influence across Asia.
“The leaders of the SCO member countries will discuss the current state and prospects for further deepening multifaceted cooperation within the organization and improving its activities,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
At last year’s virtual summit, the group issued a statement critical of what it called the negative impact of “unilateral and unlimited expansion of global missile defense systems by certain countries or groups of countries,” without directly referring to NATO expansion and Western military assistance to Ukraine.