Josh Hawley says Biden should block Ukraine from NATO because US too busy to defend it

Republican US Senator Josh Hawley has called on Joe Biden to drop the United States’ support for Ukraine's inclusion in NATO.

Mr Hawley claimed that any binding commitment to defend Ukraine would ultimately undermine the US' efforts to counter China.

Axios reports that Mr Hawley's position in gaining support among Republican lawmakers, but many Republican senators are still on board with the inclusion of Ukraine in NATO.

During the 2008 Bucharest Summit, former President George W Bush and the rest of NATO's leadership agreed that both Ukraine and Georgia "will become" members of the organisation. While the leaders agreed the countries would join, there was no timeline or pathway to membership developed.

That announcement was unsurprisingly met with extreme opposition from Russia, which has long stated it does not want NATO at its borders. Shortly after the announcement in 2008, Russia invaded Georgia, and later Ukraine in 2014.

Now, with forces amassed on the Ukraine border, Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded a guarantee that Ukraine will never be admitted to NATO.

NATO has refused Russia's demands. While the organisation has no plans to include Ukraine in the alliance anytime soon, it said it would not accept Russia undermining its "open-door policy" for nations interested in joining the alliance.

In a letter obtained by Axios, Mr Hawley has asked for "clarity" from Secretary of State Antony Blinken describing how Ukraine's inclusion in NATO would serve US interests.

He said that he supports sending assistance to Ukraine to aid in its defence, but said that a war with Russia is contrary to US interests.

"Such a deployment can only detract from the U.S. military’s ability to ready and modernize forces to deter China in the Indo-Pacific," Mr Hawley wrote in the letter.

He also pointed out that most NATO member countries do not actually spend 2 per cent of their GDP on defense - which is one of the conditions of NATO membership - and called on Mr Biden to rethink his assumptions about US foreign policy in the face of China, which Republicans view as the nation's greatest competitor and threat.

Mr Biden has already ruled out sending troops to Ukraine, but he has authorised the deployment of forces to Eastern Europe to help strengthen the NATO presence in the area. That move saw broad Republican support in the Senate.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki criticised Mr Hawley for his position, calling his opposition to Ukraine’s inclusion in NATO “unAmerican.”