Gauthier Delomez and AFP / Photo credits: Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP
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6:58 p.m., June 18, 2023
Here is a position of Joe Biden which may surprise in the midst of the war in Ukraine. Asked by journalists whether he intended to make Kiev’s NATO membership “easier”, the American president said “no”, assuring that the country of Volodymyr Zelensky should “respect all the criteria. So we we’re not going to make it easy.” “I believe that the Biden method is first of all to respect the rules”, analyzes Jean-Éric Branaa, doctor in American civilization and author of United States geopoliticsin the show Europe 1 Evening Weekend.
Compliance with the membership procedure
“There is a procedure which was decided, not by Joe Biden or the United States, but by all the NATO countries. These procedures have been respected by all the countries which have joined since”, recalls the lecturer at the University of Paris 2 with Pierre de Vilno.
Jean-Éric Branaa underlines that this procedure was respected in particular by Finland, the last State to have joined the Atlantic Alliance on April 4, 2023, and that Sweden is on the right track to also join the organization. “The first reason for joining NATO is not to be at war. And Zelensky said it himself: it’s simply impossible,” says the specialist in American geopolitics.
“Ensure that the peace between Ukraine and Russia is solid” after the war
Which specifies the strategy of the tenant of the White House: “What Biden is saying, in reality, is not simply that we must respect the procedure, nor even that it is a country at war, but it is the question of the guarantee of security. Once the war is over, once Ukraine explains that in economic, democratic and defense terms, it fulfills all the criteria, it will be necessary to ensure that this peace established between Russia and Ukraine be strong.”
The lecturer draws a parallel with the political situation between France and Germany during the two world wars. “We know very well that there are problems of defense and territory which are at stake. We will have to solidify before Ukraine can even seriously consider being able to be in NATO because it is not a question to involve all the countries of the Alliance in a war. NATO, it is exactly the opposite, it is to prepare peace”, explains Jean-Éric Branaa in Europe 1 EveningWeekend.