NEW YORK, November 29. /TASS/. The foreign ministers of NATO member states will reiterate at a meeting in Bucharest that the bloc’s door remains open but now is not the time for Ukraine to join, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.
According to the news outlet, "some allies are pushing to give Kiev a more direct path to membership, according to a senior European diplomat, but there is no consensus." "Members are agreed however that the focus right now should be on helping Ukraine win the war, the diplomat said."
"NATO allies may eventually pledge to support Ukraine’s military so that it can defend itself against any future aggression in the long term, but discussions likely won’t be agreed before leaders gather in Vilnius next summer," the news outlet wrote, citing the diplomat.
According to Bloomberg, "there won’t be any meaningful progress" on Ukraine’s NATO membership at the meeting as "allies have treated Ukraine’s renewed request with caution, since the bloc’s collective defense commitments could drag them into a direct conflict with Russia."
The European Union’s Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton said in October that Kiev could not join NATO amid military activities in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky announced a fast-track NATO membership bid in late September. However, when speaking to reporters, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg declined to answer the direct question as to whether the bloc was ready to consider the bid.