NATO leaders are ready to provide Ukraine with increased military assistance in its conflict against Russia, but they have only offered vague promises regarding future membership in the alliance as the summit concludes on Wednesday, July 12th. A preliminary agreement states that Ukraine may become a member of NATO “when allies agree and certain conditions are met.” . The ambiguous outcome reflects the difficulties in achieving consensus among current alliance members while the war continues, which is likely to leave Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dissatisfied. For him, not initiating World War III means betraying Ukraine or so it seems.
Essentially, Western nations are willing to continue sending weapons to assist Ukraine in fulfilling NATO’s one of three original purposes (defending against a Russian invasion), but they are not granting Ukraine membership and the accompanying security benefits. Why is that? Because of NATO’s second original purpose: keeping any individual European nation down, especially Germans. USA could very well persuade its European allies to increase military spending but that would go against NATO’s third original purpose: keeping us firmly inside European matters.
