NATO was never going to admit Ukraine while intense fighting is going on. But Volodymyr Zelensky has been offered an accelerated process for membership once the war is over
That may have cheered Vladimir Putin, who is always on the lookout for signs of Western disunity in the face of his gory invasion of his neighbour. The reality, however, is different. Though the summit could have done more, and avoided the impression of differences with Ukraine, it inflicted several reverses on Russia’s president, with the promise of many more to come..
Even that is somewhat beside the point. For now, genuine peace talks are unlikely. Indeed, the fact that Russia knows thatwill not admit Ukraine as long as war rages gives it an incentive to keep fighting. What counts is less the conditions for some hypotheticalmembership in the future, so much as a concrete and lasting programme to defend Ukraine right now. That is where the summit made real progress.
One way of underscoring that message would be to put promises into law, as America’s Congress did in 1979 with the Taiwan Relations Act. This requires the president to make available “such defence articles and defence services in such quantity as may be necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defence capability”. America should do the same for Ukraine. A future Congress could reverse such a law, but legislation would set the bar higher.
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