Zelensky to call Biden over NATO demands
Vladimir Zelensky has said he will call US President Joe Biden to discuss Ukraine’s NATO hopes. It follows talks between Zelensky and US President-elect Donald Trump in Paris on Saturday.
Kiev has long aspired to join the US-led military bloc, considering it a fundamental security guarantee against Russia. Moscow, however, says its ambition to join NATO was one of the key reasons for the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.
”I am going to call President Biden in the near future… and raise the issue of the invitation to NATO. He is now the current president of the United States, and a lot depends on his position. There is no point discussing [this] with Trump, while he is not yet in the White House,” Zelensky wrote on his Telegram channel on Monday.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Trump’s team had shown little interest in offering Ukraine NATO membership, while backing the current administration’s move to rush more weapons to Ukraine before Biden’s term expires next month.
Biden has so far resisted Kiev’s demands, saying it was not ready to join the bloc. However, the Financial Times reported in October that there were “tentative signs” that the US president may agree to advance the status of Ukraine’s NATO membership bid before he leaves office in January.
Ukraine has insisted that membership of the military bloc is “the only real security guarantee” for the country, and that Kiev would not accept “any alternatives, surrogates or substitutes” for full membership.
On Sunday, after a meeting with the Ukrainian leader in France, Trump called for an immediate ceasefire and a start to negotiations between Kiev and Moscow. In a post on social media, the president-elect said “China can help,” referring to Beijing’s ongoing mediation effort.
Moscow insists that the goals of its military operation – which include Ukrainian neutrality, as well as “demilitarization and denazification” – must be achieved for the conflict to be settled.
