Source: (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — President Biden said on CNN this week that NATO should not allow Ukraine to enter the military alliance quite yet.
Biden said that Ukraine is not ready for NATO membership, primarily because he says if NATO were to admit Ukraine right now that would drag every other NATO nation into a direct war with Russia.
“I don’t think there is unanimity among the NATO family to bring Ukraine in now, at this moment,” Biden said. “Not in the middle of a war. If the war is going on then we are all in a war.”
Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-IN-8th) found himself in a place of rare agreement with the president.
“I don’t think we should (admit Ukraine) at this point,” Bucshon said on WISH-TV. “I think Ukraine is not ready to be a NATO member prior to the war. In order to be a NATO member you have to have stability in your government.”
Bucshon said that is something that Ukraine was lacking before Russia’s invasion last year. He said that Ukraine has been struggling with corruption within its government for several years.
But, Bucshon did add that current president Volodymyr Zelesnskyy had been doing a good job of weeding out corruption before the war began.
President Biden will be in Lithuania later this week to meet with other NATO allies at a NATO summit, where the topic of Ukraine’s possible membership in the military alliance will likely be discussed.
