Wallace says NATO should consider Ukraine's accession without membership action plan

Wallace said this at a joint press conference alongside his Canadian counterpart Anita Anand in London, as reported by Reuters.

"I think we should absolutely look at skipping the Membership Action Plan."

Wallace also said he could not guarantee agreement on that step ahead of next month's NATO summit in Lithuania, but said it could be possible to remove other barriers to their membership.

Earlier in June, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba called on NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to cancel the requirement for Ukraine to fulfill MAP in order to join the Alliance.

• CNN, citing an informed source, reported that President Joe Biden is not opposed to waiving the MAP requirement for Ukraine.
• According to Politico, an increasing number of NATO member states are supporting a simplified accession for Ukraine, which would involve abandoning the requirement to fulfill the MAP.