Ukraine Does Not Meet NATO Membership Requirements, Says German Chancellor Scholz

At the end of the meeting of G7 nations in Japan, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday that Ukraine currently does not meet the requirements to join the NATO alliance.

The expansion of the American-led NATO alliance into Ukraine does not seem to be on the cards any time soon, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz downplaying the idea after meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Hiroshima, Japan over the weekend.

While the trip was successful for the Ukrainian leader in terms of securing additional military aid commitments — with President Joe Biden committing to send another $375 million in American tax dollars to the war zone — as well as getting the go-ahead from Washington for Western allies to supply American-made F-16 fighter jets, it does not appear that Zelensky has come any closer to his long-stated goal of joining NATO — a move that is considered a “red line” for the Kremlin.

In an interview with Die Welt on Sunday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said of the current state of play: “Now it’s about supporting Ukraine, defending its country. For the future, there will also be talk about security guarantees, that is clear. These security guarantees include the question of how strongly we will equip Ukraine with weapons in the future. After the war, Ukraine will be equipped with weapons of Western production.

“It is also clear that we then have to discuss which security guarantees can be given in a post-war situation. But we are far from there yet. Now we are concentrating on what is coming up.”

When pressed on whether he would support Ukraine joining the Western military alliance — which would mandate all other member states to go to war on behalf of Ukraine if it were attacked — Scholz said that “NATO’s criteria include a whole series of conditions that Ukraine cannot currently meet.”