2024 Candidates Split on Ukraine’s NATO Membership

President Biden’s Stance on Ukraine’s NATO Membership

This week, President Joe Biden attended the NATO summit in Lithuania, sparking discussions about Ukraine’s potential future membership in the alliance.

The 2024 presidential candidates have differing opinions on this matter.

During an interview with CNN, President Biden, a Democrat, expressed his belief that Ukraine is not yet prepared to join NATO.

“I don’t think it’s ready for membership in NATO,” he told Fareed Zakaria in an interview that aired on July 9.

“But here’s the deal. I spent, as you know, a great deal of time trying to hold NATO together because I believe Putin has had an overwhelming objective from the time he launched 185,000 troops into Ukraine, and that was to break NATO,” continued Mr. Biden. “He was confident, in my view and many in the intelligence community, he was confident he could break NATO.”

President Biden further explained that granting NATO membership to Ukraine at this moment would have undesirable consequences.

“So holding NATO together is really critical,” he said. “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.

“For example, if you did that, then, you know, and I mean what I say, we’re determined to commit every inch of territory that is NATO territory as a commitment that we’ve all made no matter what.”

However, President Biden did express his belief that Ukraine will eventually become a member of NATO.

“Your resilience and your resolve has been a model for the whole world to see,” he said. “I look forward to the day when we’re having the meeting celebrating your official, official membership in NATO.”

Views of the 2024 GOP Candidates

Meanwhile, the 2024 GOP candidates have differing views on Ukraine’s potential NATO membership.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley expressed her support for Ukraine joining NATO.

“The key is, there is no reason Ukraine should not be part of NATO,” she said on Fox News on July 11.

“NATO has been a 70-year success story at keeping Russia out. They’ve been a 70-year success story, there’s been no inner conflict between all of those countries,” continued Ms. Haley. “Ukraine has shown their military might, they’ve shown their power, and they’ve shown they would be a fantastic asset to the alliance.

“But more than that, Russia has never invaded a country that is part of NATO. They invaded Georgia; they invaded Moldova; they invaded Ukraine. Those were not countries that were part of NATO. This is when the alliance should have gotten together and said, ‘Yes, we’re going to bring Ukraine in,’ because the way we end this war is for Russia to get out. That’s it.”

On the other hand, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis expressed opposition to Ukraine’s NATO membership.