Trump says he sympathizes with Russia’s opposition to Ukraine’s NATO membership
- 10 January, 06:01
US President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday he sympathized with Kremlin’s position that Ukraine should not become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO. Addressing a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trump also criticized the outgoing President Joe Biden for what he described as altering US stance on Ukraine’s NATO membership.
"A big part of the problem is, Russia - for many, many years, long before Putin - said, 'You could never have NATO involved with Ukraine.' Now, they've said that. That's been, like, written in stone," Trump said.
"And somewhere along the line Biden said, 'No. They should be able to join NATO.' Well, then Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I could understand their feelings about that."
NATO members have expressed support for Ukraine’s membership of the alliance since the Bucharest Summit of 2008. However, no official membership invitation has been extended to Ukraine.
Russia has cited NATO’s eastward expansion as the reason for the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In September 2022, Ukraine announced a bid to join NATO. Trump has repeatedly questioned US aid to Ukraine and has pledged to end the war swiftly.
