On Monday, in his appearance on FNC's “Fox & Friends,” national security adviser Michael Waltz responded to a pledge from Ukrainian President Voldymir Zelensky during peace talks over the Ukrainian-Russia conflict.
Zelensky offered to resign from his post if his NATO membership is part of the agreement.
Waltz said NATO membership was not “on the table.”
“So it looks like a conversation. He was asked about Ukrainian President Zelensky about his NATO membership,” co-host Lawrence Jones said. “And he said he's willing to step down. Defense Secretary Pete Hegses now says that it's not realistic. I spoke to the president. He's been made public in private. “I'm saying the same thing about being there. Is it back to the table? Because he was asked that question and said he was willing to resign.”
“It's not back to the table,” Waltz replied. “I have not seen the US mandate the US military immediately in terms of having Ukraine enter NATO and having U.S. troops come directly to defend Ukraine. It's very different. I want to be clear about that. President Macron is coming. The British star is coming. This is very different from the US commitment to NATO and existing NATO countries. We , a NATO warrant, a 5th treaty agreement with other NATO countries, is absolutely committed to a massive scale. But Ukraine's security guarantee is a different conversation.”
He continued. “One of the things we fully support is that both France, the UK and other Europeans are willing to participate in a very strong security guarantee for the future of Ukraine. It's another conversation. It's something we're encouraged, because Lawrence, we've been asking for years to help Europe stand up to its own defense, so the US taxpayers are. It has put an unfair burden for decades that have been asking Europe to pay for its own defenses.”
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