AMNA NAWAZ: Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said this afternoon, in a surprise announcement, he would put Sweden's bid for NATO membership before the Turkish Parliament.

President Erdogan had insisted that Sweden needed to do more to crack down on Kurdish militants, some of whom have sought refuge in Scandinavia.

Sweden and Finland announced their intentions last summer to join NATO.

Finland was admitted in April.

Even this morning, Erdogan proposed that Swedish membership in NATO was a bargaining chip, one that could be traded for Turkey's long-dormant application to join the European Union.

In the meantime, leaders from NATO's 31 countries began arriving in Vilnius, Lithuania, ahead of a two-day summit that begins tomorrow.

Before all of this, our Laura Barron-Lopez spoke early today with the U.S. ambassador to NATO, Julianne Smith.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Ambassador Julie Smith, thank you so much for joining the "NewsHour."

News today out of Ukraine.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said today that NATO allies have reached a consensus to remove the Membership Action Plan requirements, such as military and democratic reforms, for Ukraine's pathway to a NATO membership.

That conceivably would fast-track their membership, right?

So what's stopping Ukraine from becoming a full member now?

JULIANNE SMITH, U.S.

Ambassador to NATO: Well, first of all, on the question of the Membership Action Plan, that is something that some new members or newly added members have used on their path to membership.

It is not always the case that aspirants use that program.

Finland and Sweden are not working through a Membership Action Plan.

But we are - - we, the United States, we support lifting that particular requirement for Ukraine.

And I don't want to get ahead of any of the summit deliverables.

So I'm not going to get into the details of what the actual communique will say.

But that is something that allies have been looking at.

In terms of what stands between Ukraine and membership, obviously, our focus right now is on helping the Ukrainians end this war.

Putin could end it today if he so desired.

We're continuing to get practical support into the hands of the Ukrainian military commanders.

And we will be looking at some of the ongoing reforms that the Ukrainians have been undertaking to qualify for NATO membership.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: President Biden recently said that he doesn't think Ukraine is ready for membership in NATO right now, that it takes time to meet qualifications, including democratization.

But with that MAP requirement dropped, what qualifications are left and why not issue a timeline for their membership?

JULIANNE SMITH: Well, first and foremost, we want, again, the war to end that is currently taking place on Ukrainian territory, and that's the priority number one.

But the Ukrainians themselves have talked about the need for additional reforms.

There are a variety of democratic and security sector reforms that aspirants need to meet.

Ukraine has traveled quite some distance since the alliance said that they would become a member in 2008.

But they will tell you, NATO will tell you that we will continue to work together that they finish those list of reforms.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Is there a problem with the Ukrainian democracy that disqualifies them from being a NATO member?

JULIANNE SMITH: I don't want to get into any of the specifics here.

I will say that, broadly, before a country joins the alliance, we do work with those aspirant countries on a variety of reforms to ensure that they will uphold all of the values that this alliance is designed to protect.

So, we look at things like rule of law.

We look at their democratization.

We look at things like anti-corruption.

That's standard practice for any new member that's coming into the alliance.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The cluster munitions that the administration announced Friday that are going to be sent to Ukraine, how quickly will they be sent?

JULIANNE SMITH: I don't know the specifics about that.

I think we're talking weeks, not months.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In terms of long-term security commitments that the United States is prepared to make to Ukraine and guarantee to Ukraine, what exactly are those long-term security commitments, as Ukraine waits for a full NATO membership?

JULIANNE SMITH: Well, the United States has been in conversation with friends in Kyiv to look at the possibility of outlining some longer-term security assurances.

And, in essence, what we're talking about is making a commitment to them that we will support Ukraine, not just right now, in this moment, while Russia has invaded its territory and continues to conduct this war, but that, over the long term, the United States is prepared to make a bilateral commitment to Ukraine that it will continue to help that country meet its security needs, so that this doesn't happen again.

And we expect that we will have some news on that later this week here on the margins of the NATO summit.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Can you give any specifics at all about the potential for tangibles there at the end of the summit?

JULIANNE SMITH: Yes, this summit actually is going to have a whole list of concrete deliverables.

I will tick through just a couple of them.

One, the alliance is going to be rolling out new regional plans that will ensure that the alliance can literally defend every inch of NATO territory.

This is a generational change for the alliance.

We're also going to be rolling out something called the Defense Investment Pledge, which will follow up on the 2 percent commitment that allies made to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense.

We're going to have four countries from the Indo-Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, here with us in Vilnius to talk about shared security challenges.

And then we will have this package of deliverables for our friends in Ukraine that will showcase our continued unity and resolve to stand shoulder to shoulder with them as they protect their territory.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Ambassador Julie Smith, thank you so much for your time.

JULIANNE SMITH: Thank you.