The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry called the summit that NATO will hold on July 11-12 in the country’s capital, Vilnius, “historic”. And the event will be historic not only for the Baltic country and its capital “which celebrates its 700th anniversary this year,” but also for the Atlantic Alliance itself.
The agency points out that the importance of the summit lies both in the fact that it will take place practically on the eastern border of the military bloc, in the decisions that will be made there, and that it will “contribute to growth and strength”. of the Alliance.”
“Two Great Threats”
The leaders of the member countries are expected to hold a series of meetings with their allies during these two days and also hold a major meeting chaired by the Union Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to discuss its future development and functioning discuss.
“At the summit, we will take important new steps to strengthen our deterrence and defense.” “With three new regional defense plans to counter the two main threats to our alliance: Russia and terrorism,” Stoltenberg himself announced last week.
According to the senior official, the organization’s military plans include the deployment of 300,000 soldiers in Europe on high alert. In addition, the member countries determine the 2% of GDP to a minimum for military spending while NATO’s defense spending will increase 8.3% in 2023.
Stoltenberg also noted that the Allies will increase supplies of artillery shells to Ukraine. As he explained, the Union is preparing an additional aid package worth more than $100,000 500 million dollars for Kiev, including fuel and medical supplies.
Will Ukraine be able to join NATO?
However, Ukraine considers a new military aid package to be insufficient, as its Ukrainian leadership has long called for Ukraine’s membership of NATO and has made a corresponding application accelerated onboarding to the alliance in September 2022, in the midst of the war with Russia.
But despite Vladimir Zelenskyy’s confirmed presence at the summit and Stoltenberg’s pledge to adopt a long-term support plan for Ukraine that will “make it stronger and bring it closer to the alliance,” Kyiv’s dream of joining the bloc appears to be a long way off be fulfilled.
A few days before the summit began, the Washington Post reported last Friday that NATO members they had not yet agreed about what they would offer Ukraine. According to the newspaper, while Kiev insists on joining the bloc, US and Atlantic Alliance officials have discussed considering proposals to do so defense pacts either safety notes. However, the media noted that it was not clear if they would help Ukraine.
In contrast, the German newspaper Bild reported on Monday The US and Germany plan to block Ukraine’s application for NATO membership. According to media information, Berlin and Washington are also putting pressure on other alliance members to state their position on Ukraine’s accession.
It should also be noted that the intended prominence of Kyiv to become one of the main themes of the meeting is eclipsed Sweden, which is also striving for membership in the alliance. And despite the fact that a stage with the colors of the Ukrainian flag and a large message with the text #UkraineNATO33 (symbolizing that Ukraine would become the 33rd member of NATO) was set up on a central square in the Lithuanian capital , the reality is that the alliance currently has only 31 members.
And what about Sweden?
Stockholm’s NATO membership may be taken almost for granted by many, but the accession process has dragged on for over a year. It started in May 2022 when Sweden and Finland officially applied to join NATO, but Türkiye refused to support his accession He argued that the two Nordic countries hosted members of organizations Ankara considers terrorists on their territory.
Back in March this year, Erdogan announced that Helsinki had taken concrete steps to fulfill its promises to crack down on these groups, and on April 4 Finland joined the alliance. As for Sweden, Turkey has repeatedly said it has yet to take further action against members of the network blaming Ankara for the 2016 coup attempt.
Tensions also escalated after Swedish authorities recently authorized the burning of a Koran outside the Turkish embassy and demonstrations by supporters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in central Stockholm.
This Monday, however, Erdogan said that his country would agree to Sweden joining NATO if the European Union “paves the way to the common bloc” for Ankara. “Turkey has been waiting at the door of the European Union for more than 50 years and almost all NATO member countries are now members of the European Union,” said the Turkish president.
“Come and pave the way for Turkey’s membership of the European Union. If they pave the way for Turkey, we will pave the way for Sweden, just as we did for Finland.“Said Erdogan. But just a few hours later, Stoltenberg announced that Ankara would give up its opposition to Stockholm’s membership in the military alliance.
According to the NATO Secretary General, Erdogan will submit the question of Sweden’s candidacy for membership in the military bloc to the Turkish parliament and “will guarantee its ratification«. Stoltenberg specified that the change in Erdogan’s position took place during his recent meeting with the Swedish prime minister. Ulf Kristersson. In this way, the Scandinavian country’s membership will become another of the difficult issues to be dealt with during the summit, and Turkey will be a key player in ensuring that the issue leads to one outcome or another, depending on whether whether his demands are met or not.
Who could replace Stoltenberg?
Aside from possible new entrants, the bloc could also deal with another important internal matter: who will be its general secretary? Last Tuesday it was extended by one year, until October 2024, Jens Stoltenberg’s tenure at the head of Allianz.
However, military bloc leaders had reportedly hoped to agree on his successor at the Vilnius summit, but failed to agree on a possible candidate.
According to several sources, Joe Biden is campaigning for the candidacy for President of the European Commission. Ursula von der Leyento lead NATO after the White House rejected the British defense secretary, Ben Wallaceto fill the position. And while fears mount that a suitable candidate might not be found within the next 12 months, the Europe official has already made it clear that she is not interested in the position.
Wallace was reportedly a favorite among several NATO member states, but tensions have arisen with Washington over its unprecedented support for Ukraine An obstacle, already that Washington does not appreciate the fact that the British Defense Secretary has often gone further than the US in his military support for Kiev, even supplying tanks and long-range cruise missiles.