NATO retains ‘open-door policy’ despite US opposition to a ‘perpetually expanding alliance’

Countries looking to join NATO are still welcome to apply, a top alliance official said Wednesday in tacit repudiation of the Trump administration’s recent declaration that the group must not be a “perpetually expanding alliance.”

NATO has an open-door policy, the alliance’s parliamentary secretary general, Benedetta Berti, told reporters Wednesday at an event hosted by the Project for Media and National Security . That was reaffirmed as recently as June’s summit , but the new U.S. national security strategy calls for “ending the perception, and preventing the reality, of NATO as a perpetually expanding alliance.”

However, Berti added, “there is no consensus for moving forward with the accession of new members,” to include Ukraine.

Berti was in Washington, D.C., this week for NA