Editorial: It’s not the right time to admit Ukraine to NATO

President Biden is meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, this week with leaders of other NATO countries to try to shore up an alliance whose importance has been accentuated by Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, but which continues to face challenges and lingering internal tensions.

But even as Biden is emphasizing the utility of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the need to assist Ukraine as that country presses its counter-offensive, he is appropriately exhibiting caution about Ukraine joining NATO.

This might seem like a contradiction, but it isn’t. In an interview on CNN, Biden made the obvious but important point that NATO membership for Ukraine while its defensive war with Russia continued would necessitate direct U.S. involvement. “We’re determined to [defend] every inch of territory that is NATO territory,” Biden said. “It’s a commitment that we’ve all made no matter what. If the war is going on, then we’re all in a war. We’re at war with Russia, if that were the case.”

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Biden also noted that, at a time when the unity of NATO is important, “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.” Better, as the president seems to realize, to focus on easing differences within the alliance.

On Monday, in a major step forward, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that Turkey’s leader had agreed to support Sweden’s bid to join NATO. This breakthrough came a short time after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had indicated that the European Union would have to act first on Turkey’s effort to join that association. With Turkey’s agreement, Hungary is also expected to approve membership for Sweden.

It’s understandable that Ukraine, seeing NATO states extend a welcome to Finland and Sweden, might wonder why it must defend itself without the protection of the North Atlantic Treaty’s Article 5, which says that an armed attack against one or more NATO members shall be considered an attack against them all. But even after the war with Russia ends, ideally with a Ukrainian victory, it may make sense for Western nations to provide Ukraine with security guarantees short of NATO membership.

Biden said in his CNN interview that he favors a “rational path” for Ukraine to qualify for NATO membership. While that process played out, he suggested, the United States could provide security assistance similar to that provided to Israel. It could turn out that such assistance would be adequate to Ukraine’s needs without the further step of full NATO membership.

To their credit, Western nations have provided significant assistance to Ukraine in its just war of self-defense. The Biden administration has decided to provide Ukraine with cluster weapons, a controversial decision that is troubling despite the administration’s suggestion that the weapons in question are less dangerous to civilians than other cluster bombs and that Ukraine will not use them in urban areas populated by civilians. That military assistance can continue, and even increase, without admitting Ukraine to NATO.