US President Joe Biden supports NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's proposal that Ukraine does not need to implement the Membership Action Plan (MAP) to join the Alliance.

Axios, citing two sources familiar with the progress of these discussions, noted that Biden, like German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, was among those who did not want to go beyond the commitments made at the NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008, regarding Ukraine becoming a member of the Alliance one day.

According to the Axios’s sources, during a meeting between Biden and Stoltenberg in the White House on Tuesday, the NATO Secretary General proposed that Ukraine has made progress toward membership in the Alliance, and there is no need for the phased implementation of the MAP, which all Eastern European countries went through before joining.

The implementation of the MAP defines specific criteria and reforms and can stretch over years and even decades. Biden, on the other hand, is looking for a compromise solution that will suit both Ukraine and all Alliance members.

Pentagon Head Lloyd Austin has said that Washington "continues to support NATO's open door policy", adding that "each country has a different path to joining" the Alliance.

As is known, at the July NATO summit in Vilnius, Ukraine is also seeking to achieve clear wording regarding the prospect of membership in the North Atlantic Alliance, while criticising the decision of the Bucharest summit, which is "as far removed from reality as possible".

In addition, Ukraine expects the summit participants to provide security guarantees for the period before membership in the Alliance and not as an alternative to joining it.