Ukraine, defense plans, Sweden's membership, at the top of the NATO agenda

2023-07-10 17:03:14, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Russian attack on Ukraine will be at the top of the agenda of the meeting that US President Joe Biden will hold with the leaders of NATO member countries on July 11 and 12 in Vilnius, Lithuania. Attention will also be focused on determining the steps for Ukraine's future membership in NATO, as well as the security guarantees that the country will need, so that Russia does not attack it again after the end of the war. Likewise, NATO leaders will discuss Sweden's membership in the military alliance, and set a new, higher target for defense spending.

Final preparations are being made in Vilnius for the NATO high-level meeting that starts on Tuesday. President Joe Biden and other leaders of the alliance will meet only 32 kilometers from the border of Lithuania with Belarus, a country allied to Russia, so the meeting is accompanied by strong security measures.

Western leaders are expected to focus on Russian aggression in Ukraine and ensuring support for Kiev as long as the war continues. In a joint press conference with the President of Lithuania Gitanas Nauseda, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance aims to strengthen preventive mechanisms in the field of defense, anticipating even more investments.

" We will increase our support for Ukraine and bring it even closer to NATO. We will work even more closely with partners to support the rules-based international order ," he said.

Before the trip to Vilnius, for the NATO meeting, American President Biden paid a visit to Britain. The meeting with Prime Minister Sunak focused on strengthening the cooperation and partnership of the two countries as members of NATO.

" Relations between the United States and Great Britain are very strong ," said President Biden.

This is the sixth meeting between Mr. Biden and Mr. Sunak since the latter took office in October.

" We remain as two of the strongest allies in NATO. I know that we all want to do everything we can to strengthen Euro-Atlantic security ", said Mr. Sunak.

Both countries are two of Kiev's strongest supporters. London has pushed Washington to take more aggressive steps in providing military aid to Ukraine, but appears to have distanced itself from the Biden administration's recent decision to send cluster bombs to the country.

NATO is not yet ready to start membership talks with Ukraine, but is helping the country with training and modernization of its army and security institutions. At the high-level meeting in Vilnius, a new forum for consultations, the NATO-Ukraine Council, is expected to be created.

The senior expert of the German Marshall Fund, Bruno Lete, says that this organization will provide Ukraine with the right to gather allies.

" So this council will certainly be a very important political instrument for Ukraine ", he says.

But the council will not have the powers to decide on the implementation of Article 5 of the NATO treaty, from which allied countries benefit from collective security guarantees. Based on this article, an attack on any NATO member country is considered an attack on all of them.

" Ukraine will have powers to convene NATO in times of emergency, but simply to talk ," says Mr. Lete.

NATO is expected to approve new defense plans, in case Russian President Vladimir Putin tries to expand the war beyond Ukraine, into the territory of the allied countries. An important place will be occupied by the issue of spending on defense. The Allies have already agreed that by 2024, defense spending will reach 2% of the Gross Domestic Product. In Vilnius, NATO leaders will agree that this is the minimum level of defense spending./ VOA