(CN) — U.S. President Joe Biden landed in London on Monday ahead of a crucial two-day NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius.
Ukraine — currently embroiled in the biggest war on the European continent since World War II — will be top of the agenda.
Since the outbreak of war, officials in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv have been pleading for membership in NATO, hoping that joining the Cold War-era military alliance will strengthen its standing against Russia, which invaded Ukraine first in 2014 and again early last year.
The White House has played hard to get with the former Soviet bloc country, providing a lot of military support to Ukraine while also seeking to avoid deeper geopolitical commitments and conflicts.
Biden's trip to Europe comes amid some of the fiercest fighting yet in eastern Ukraine. For about a month, Kyiv has tried to launch a major counteroffensive to retake territory under Russian control. The counteroffensive has run up against stiff Russian defenses and Ukrainian forces have made few gains, dampening NATO's hopes ahead of this week's summit.
Meanwhile, before leaving for Europe, Biden also lowered expectations about Ukraine's quick entry into the NATO military alliance during an interview with CNN.
In the interview, which aired Sunday, Biden said Ukraine should not be admitted into the alliance while it is fighting Russia, as doing so would require NATO to go to war against Moscow. That's because of Article 5 in the treaty, a key section which states that an attack on any single NATO member should trigger a response from the entire alliance.
“I don't think there is unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war,” Biden told CNN. “If the war is going on, then we're all in a war. You know, we're in a war with Russia.”
He suggested it would take a long time for Ukraine to meet the conditions needed to become a NATO member — and not just because of the ongoing conflict. Joining NATO is a process that "takes some time," Biden told CNN. Countries interested in joining also have to meet other "qualifications," he said, "from democratization to a whole range of other issues."
Still, Biden stressed the alliance was staying strong despite what he said were attempts by Russian President Vladimir Putin to break the bloc's unity. Biden said he'd spent "a great deal of time trying to hold NATO together."
“I believe Putin has had an overwhelming objective from the time he launched 185,000 troops into Ukraine, and that was to break NATO,” Biden told CNN. “He was confident — in my view and [in the view of] many in the intelligence community — he was confident he could break NATO.”
In the meantime, Biden said the United States is ready to provide security to Ukraine "à la the security we provide for Israel." That includes providing weapons and ensuring Ukrainians have "the capacity to defend themselves," including in the event of a ceasefire or other peace agreement.
Last week, Washington announced its latest package of military support for Kyiv. The package sparked criticism for including the provision of cluster munitions, explosive weapons that release a multitude of smaller explosives.
Cluster munitions are banned by most nations, but the U.S. has not signed onto the prohibition. These bombs have been used in the Russia-Ukraine war already, though their deployment is considered a war crime.
In London ahead of the summit, Biden was greeted by King Charles III and held talks with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak about Ukraine's bid to join NATO. NATO leaders will meet in Vilnius on Tuesday and Wednesday.
While the Ukraine war will no doubt cast a long shadow over the summit, the alliance faces other big challenges, too. Among them: dealing with Turkey's objections to Sweden's bid to join the alliance.
Before Sweden joins the alliance, Turkey — itself a NATO member — has demanded Sweden first hand over Kurdish rebels who have found refuge in the Nordic country. On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan suggested he might lift his objection to Sweden's entry into NATO in exchange for reopening talks on Turkey's entry into the European Union.
Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.
Follow @cainburdeau
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