America is not keen for the country to come aboard—yet
. “I’m not going to make it easier,” he declared. Despite its bold fight against Russia, the country still has to prove itself: “Does it meet all the standards every other nation inAmerica thus finds itself unusually isolated in the transatlantic alliance it founded and that it has long dominated. It is the indispensable supporter of Ukraine’s war, providing the lion’s share of military aid .
In the White House, bigwigs think this is all semantic nit-picking. In practice, they say, no ally is pushing for Ukraine to join while it is at war. So better to focus on how to help Ukraine defend itself, not as an alternative to membership but as a step towards it. The need for sustained support may become all the more important if Ukraine’s counter-offensive continues to make only slow progress. Russia seems intent on a long war.
Word choice matters intensely. Ukraine understandably rejects more assurances. Rather it wants “guarantees” of help over decades to ensure that its army can defend the country, as set out in the “Kyiv Security Compact”, a proposal by Mr Rasmussen and Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. Their paper also envisages guarantors using “all elements of their national and collective power” to respond to any attack on Ukraine.
Israel shows that America can sustain support for other countries when successive administrations choose to. Yet as an example for Ukraine it is imperfect. Israel is the strongest military power in the Middle East and the only one with nuclear weapons. Ukraine faces a much bigger and richer foe and one with the world’s largest arsenal of nukes. Telling Ukraine to fend for itself may push it to seek nuclear weapons. And strengthening its army so that it can deter Russia may prove very costly.
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