Biden Says Ukraine ‘Not Ready’ to Join NATO

President Joe Biden unveils his economic plan during an event in the lobby of the old post office building in Chicago on June 28, 2023. Scott Olson/Getty Images

President Joe Biden says Ukraine is “not ready” to join NATO despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s recent push to join the treaty organization.

Ahead of Biden’s trip to a NATO summit in Lithuania, Zelenskyy said during an interview that it is wholly in Biden’s power to advance the eastern European nation’s membership with NATO. Many in Ukraine support such a move, but western leaders fear that, due to the nature of NATO treaty obligations, this would immediately embroil all of Europe in a war with Russia.

“The U.S. decides today whether Ukraine will get invited to NATO,” Zelenskyy said. “This is today’s situation, and it’s a fact. The majority of NATO countries support inviting Ukraine to NATO. ... Those who have their doubts, look only at President Biden and he knows that this depends on him. It will be his decision.”

U.S. President Joe Biden walks next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (L) as he arrives for a visit in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 20, 2023. Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images

Under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, an attack on any nation within the NATO alliance is treated as an attack on all, and members of the alliance are each expected to take up arms in defense of the others.

Pointing to this provision, Biden told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that Ukraine is “not ready” to join the alliance as conflict continues.

“Should [Ukraine] get membership in NATO?” Zakaria asked during a sit-down interview with the president.

“I don’t think it’s ready for membership in NATO,” Biden said, emphasizing that bringing Ukraine into NATO would mean a hot war between Russia and the West.

“Here’s the deal. I spent a great deal of time trying to hold NATO together, because I believe Putin had an overwhelming objective from the time he launched 185,000 troops in Ukraine. And that was to break NATO. He was confident in my view, and and in the view of the intelligence community, he was confident he could break NATO, so holding NATO together is really critical.”

Biden suggested disagreement with Zelenskyy’s claims that the U.S. president was the only stumbling block to Ukraine’s admission to the body.

“I don’t think there is unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war,” he said. “If you did that, then, I mean—when I say we’re determined to commit every inch of territory that is NATO territory, [it’s] a commitment that we’ve all made no matter what. If the war is going on, we’re all in war. You know, we’re rushing if that were the case.

“So I think we have to lay out a path, a rational path for ... Ukraine to be able to qualify to get into NATO.”

Lawmakers Agree

Several lawmakers agreed with the president’s position.

During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on July 9, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said that any effort to bring Ukraine into NATO would need to be “incremental.”

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) arrives to a caucus meeting with House Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington, on May 10, 2023. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

“I think first, they have to win the counter offensive,” McCaul said, referencing an ongoing effort by Ukraine to reclaim the territory already captured by Russia.

Like Biden, McCaul emphasized that escalating to a full-scale war was unacceptable.

Before joining NATO, Ukraine should “have a ceasefire, then negotiate a peace settlement,” McCaul said. “We cannot admit Ukraine into NATO immediately—that would put us at war with Russia under Article 5.”

Rather, McCaul suggested conversations with Ukraine about separate “security agreements ... as a predicate to perhaps an ascension of Ukraine into NATO.”

“But I think it’s way too premature to be talking about that,” he said, adding that while talks of joining NATO could “provide deterrence” against Russia, this is a risky strategy.

“We have to be careful in the way we do this,” he said.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Dela.), who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, agreed.

“We can’t admit Ukraine to NATO right now,” he said. “There’s a war going on that has to be resolved, that has to end with Ukrainian victory.”

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) speaks at the CARE International Women's Day Dinner in Washington on March 8, 2023. Paul Morigi/Getty Images for CARE

Coons pointed to Ukraine’s efforts to join the European Union as “improving their transparency, their rule of law, their civil society, which lays the foundation for NATO membership in the future.”

Other lawmakers have been more forceful in warning against Ukrainian admission to NATO.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) called it “insanity” to give Ukraine an invitation into NATO over Article 5 concerns.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) wrote, “If Ukraine were a NATO ally, we’d have to go to war with Russia under Article V of the NATO Treaty. While Art. V doesn’t obviate the Constitution’s declaration-of-war requirement, it shouldn’t be treated lightly. We don’t want war with Russia.”

These comments came after Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) announced that he would be working “to pass a resolution urging the admission of Ukraine into NATO.

“The best way to prevent future wars and promote peace is to create security guarantees that make aggressor nations think twice before starting wars,” Graham wrote, saying that he believes “an overwhelming majority” of senators would support the move.

Ukraine’s push to join NATO comes as the organization considers the petition of Sweden to join the alliance, a move which is substantially less controversial than Ukraine’s bid.