U.S. and Allies Aim to Forge Commitments to Ukraine That Will Endure

The United States and its NATO allies have agreed that Ukraine should have an “irreversible” path to membership in the alliance and are enshrining the phrase in a document to be released during this week’s summit in Washington, U.S. and allied officials say.

While there is no consensus yet about Ukraine joining NATO, the strengthened language would show that there is movement in that direction. The United States was once deeply skeptical about whether Ukraine was ready to become a member, and while questions remain, more and more American and European officials believe that the country will eventually be able to join.

Officials say there could always be a last-minute change before the document is released, but that the member nations had reached broad agreement in recent days.

The document, the summit communiqué, will not lay out an exact timeline for membership, which the Ukrainians have been asking for, and will insist that Ukraine first prove it can manage corruption and abide by strong democratic and law-based governance — conditions also set for other alliance members, officials say. But it should be welcomed by Ukrainian officials who have been pushing for language along the lines of “irreversible,” they say.

U.S. and allied officials are negotiating the commitments they plan to make to Ukraine with new urgency, given the uncertainty over whether President Biden, a staunch opponent of Russia in its war, can win re-election this fall, according to officials in Washington.

The officials say it is critical that leaders of the 32 member nations gathered in Washington this week use strong language to signal that Ukraine has a viable path to joining the alliance, even if that does not happen immediately because of the war.