According to Politico, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has secretly asked partners to accept that Ukraine might join NATO after the conflict without adhering to a Membership Action Plan, which is a set of military and political changes that a candidate country must implement before joining.While removing the MAP barrier expedites Ukraine’s application to join the alliance, it offers no timetable or assurances that Kyiv will finally win unanimous support for membership.Although it doesn’t fulfil Ukraine’s immediate aspirations to join, this advances their future realisation. Stoltenberg was informed by US President Joe Biden that he is “open” to the concept during their Tuesday conversation in Washington. The US’s backing as NATO’s most significant member contributes significantly to the alliance’s summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, in July being able to waive the MAP requirement.An official from a NATO nation stated, “If it’s what America really, really, really wants, they can usually get it over the line,” adding that this was true of the other seven NATO and member-state officials Politico spoke to as well.Another allied official stated that “this idea put forth by Stoltenberg should hopefully be unanimous within the alliance.”A NATO representative added that the idea “seems to have landing space” within the organisation.When French President Emmanuel Macron stated that Kyiv required security assurances and signals that it might one day join NATO, momentum to smooth Ukraine’s membership pathway began to gather. At a seminar in Slovakia, he declared, “We must include Ukraine in a security architecture if we want a sustainable peace and want to be credible towards Ukraine.”His comments demonstrated that France, which has generally resisted actions that soured relations with Russia, was more receptive to former controversial choices.A top diplomat from Eastern Europe stated on Friday that the suggestion to do away with the requirement for a MAP is a good one. We would be in favour. Boris Pistorius, the German defence minister, was similarly optimistic. He told reporters on Friday that there are “increasing signs that everyone will be able to agree on this” and that “I would be open for this.”