The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) leaders in their two-day summit starting next Tuesday, July 11, will attempt to make Ukraine stronger. After continuous attacks from Moscow, bringing destruction, death and turmoil in the country for over 500 days, the leaders pledge to help advance Ukraine’s armed forces.
The top officials of the organization mentioned that the agreement made at the summit in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, will set a new high-level forum for consultations and reaffirm the possibility of alignment some day. The US, Germany and some other allies have been discouraging the membership of Ukraine amidst war to prevent Russia’s opportunity to widen the conflict. Thus, this summit promises alignment in the near future.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stolenberg on Friday said that the leaders “will agree to a multi-year program of assistance to ensure full interoperability between the Ukrainian armed forces and NATO.” They would set a vision for Ukraine’s future. A NATO-Ukrainian council to hold Ukraine’s crisis can be established. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Wednesday, July 12, will attend the council’s first meeting in Vilnius. NATO had initially pledged Ukraine’s membership one day back in 2008, but things have been indifferent since. Stolenberg did not promise a date at the moment saying that their priority now was Ukraine’s predominance.
US President Joe Biden and his counterparts are also supposedly willing to to hike up their defense spending as their allies will pour weapons, ammunition and other medical equipment support into Ukraine. With the national military stock among Ukraine’s partners depleting 17 months into the war, NATO is encouraging 31 of its allies to boost their military expenditure. Back in 2014, NATO allies pledged on spending two percent of GDP on defense by 2024. In the Summit next week in Vilnius, two percent will be set as the minimum but no time frame will be set to achieve the goal. “In 2023, there will be a real increase of 8.3 percent across European Allies and Canada. This is the biggest increase in decades,” Stolenberg said. He also added that the progress has been good so far with the European Allies and Canada having invested over $450 billion extra since 2014.
The world’s biggest security organization, NATO hopes to welcome Sweden as their next member if they can overcome objections from the Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. However, the accession would only be made official in the following months.
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