June 29, 2022
NATO leaders are meeting in Madrid amid what Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg calls “the most serious security crisis we have faced since the Second World War.”
NATO leaders hoped to turn an urgent sense of purpose triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine into action at a summit Wednesday — and to patch up any cracks in their unity over money and mission.
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance’s meeting in Madrid came “in the midst of the most serious security crisis we have faced since the Second World War.”
Russia’s invasion of its neighbor has shattered Europe’s peace and driven NATO to pour troops and weapons into eastern Europe on a scale not seen since the Cold War.
Members of the alliance have also sent billions in military and civilian aid to Ukraine.
The 30 NATO leaders will hear directly from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is likely to ask them to do even more when he addresses the gathering by video link.
U.S. President Joe Biden, whose country provides the bulk of NATO’s military power, said the summit would send “an unmistakable message … that NATO is strong and united.”
Turkey hailed Tuesday’s agreement as a triumph, saying the Nordic nations had agreed to crack down on groups that Ankara deems national security threats, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is also considered a terrorist group by the U.S. and the EU, and its Syrian extension.
It said they also agreed “not to impose embargo restrictions in the field of defense industry” on Turkey and to take “concrete steps on the extradition of terrorist criminals.”
The summit opened with one problem solved, after Turkey agreed Tuesday to lift its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO.
In response to the invasion, the two Nordic nations abandoned their long-held nonaligned status and applied to join NATO as protection against an increasingly aggressive and unpredictable Russia — which shares a long border with Finland.
Stoltenberg said leaders of the 30-nation alliance will issue a formal invitation Wednesday to the two countries to join.
The decision has to be ratified by all individual nations, but he said he was “absolutely confident” Finland and Sweden would become members.
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