Kurt Volker: Ukraine’s NATO membership is key to permanent peace in Europe

Ukraine will be invited to NATO, but it will not happen at the Alliance’s Washington summit in July, stated Kurt Volker, American diplomat and former US Ambassador to NATO, US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations (2017-2019), in an interview with European Pravda.

“It has been US policy for 16 years. It was the US policy at the Vilnius Summit [in July 2023], and it will be repeated again at the Washington Summit that Ukraine will become a member of NATO member, but not now… When there is an agreement of all the allies, when it meets conditions, etc.,” said Volker.

Volker noted that recently, Ukraine and the US signed a security agreement that includes many references to Ukraine’s future NATO membership. Almost all NATO members, except for Germany, the United States, and Hungary, support extending an invitation to Ukraine at the July summit.

“We recommended NATO take such a step, but the US is not in favor of that right now, the Biden administration is not, nor is Germany, and, of course, Hungary is a special case,” Volker explained.

The American diplomat said there will be no permanent peace in Europe unless Ukraine is a part of NATO. “We have to have clear lines. We have to have an absence of gray zones where Putin is tempted to start war. We have to bring Ukraine into NATO as part of the strategy for restoring peace in Europe,” Volker emphasized.