Biden to meet Ukrainian counterpart Zelenskyy at NATO summit: Report

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden will meet with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit on Wednesday, CNN reported citing an official familiar with the meeting. The meeting between Biden and Zelenskyy will mark a sign of unity as the Ukrainian President's presence at the summit had been in question, according to CNN.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is among the team agenda items for NATO leaders along with discussing a future pathway for Ukraine to become a member of military alliance, the report said.

Ukraine will dominate the NATO summit scheduled to be held in Vilnius as Biden looks to keep the military alliance united behind Kyiv amid the ongoing conflict with Moscow. The alliance is facing questions regarding a potential path to NATO membership for Ukraine and additional military assistance, according to CNN.

Last week, Biden said he doesn't think Ukraine is ready for NATO membership and added that NATO is a process that takes some time to meet all qualifications, from democratization to a whole range of other issues. "I don't think it (Ukraine) is ready for membership in NATO," the US President said in an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria when asked about Ukraine's NATO membership. Biden said he doesn't think there is unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family in the middle of the war.

"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. If the war is going on, then we're all in the war. You know, we're at war with Russia, if that were the case. So, I think we have to lay out a path for a rational path for Russia, for you and me, for Ukraine to be able to qualify to get into NATO," Biden said.

Previously, Zelenskyy said that he does not plan on attending the NATO summit "for fun" as he wants a clearer pathway for Ukraine to become part of a military alliance with security guarantees.

He stressed that Ukraine should get clear security guarantees while it is not a member of NATO. In an interview with ABC News, Zelenskyy said, "It would be an important message to say that NATO is not afraid of Russia. Ukraine should get clear security guarantees while it is not in NATO. Only under these conditions, our meeting would be meaningful, otherwise it's just another politics."

Over the past several months, Biden and Zelenskyy have had multiple high-profile meetings. Since the conflict started, Zelenskyy's first visit outside Ukraine was to the US. A few months later, Biden travelled to Kyiv in a surprise visit and announced a half-a-million dollar assistance package.

The last in-person meeting between the two leaders took place at the G7 Summit in Hiroshima in May. On Friday, US President Joe Biden said providing Ukraine with cluster munitions for the first time was a "difficult decision," but he was ultimately convinced to send the widely-banned weapons as Kyiv needed the ammunition against its ongoing counteroffensive against Russia, reported CNN.

The White House announced sending cluster munitions to Ukraine. Biden said, "It was a very difficult decision on my part. And by the way, I discussed this with our allies, I discussed this with our friends up on the Hill," adding, "The Ukrainians are running out of ammunition," according to CNN.