World leaders descended upon Washington D.C. on Monday to lay the foundations for the Nato Summit, commemorating the 75th year since the establishment of the organisation in the city. The summit offers President Joe Biden a cherished break from the uproar surrounding domestic election nominations. However, the extensive lockdown and security measures, active in the city for three days, spell inconvenience for the city’s cab drivers and visitors.
Assistance to Ukraine in its struggle for liberation from the Russian incursion will inevitably set the agenda for the summit. The event will see the 31 leaders of Nato allies welcoming Sweden, participant number 32, and embraces collaboratives from Ukraine, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and the European Union.
Wednesday will see Biden conducting his first two-party meeting with the newly appointed British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer. His presence highlights the fact that the unsettled state of American politics finds a parallel in an eventful period in European politics. The summit overlaps with a reshuffling in the United Kingdom’s political scene, the ongoing shockwaves from a sudden French election and a German coalition under Chancellor Olaf Scholz teetering on the edge due to disagreements over budget expenditure.
The discussions will kick-off on Tuesday evening in a ceremonial manner when President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will host a commemorative event at the Mellon Auditorium, the same venue where the original Nato-Washington treaty was signed back in 1949.
As the representative of the host nation, it falls on President Biden to conduct proceedings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the representatives of two dozen allies who have entered into security agreements with Ukraine. New initiatives towards fortifying Ukraine’s aerial defences will be announced. During the previous summit in Vilnius, Zelenskiy expressed his disappointment over Nato allies’ failure to provide a clear roadmap for Ukraine’s membership negotiations. Many of the speeches at this summit will aim to promote the agreed-upon “bridge” proposal.
Michael Carpenter, senior adviser for Europe at the National Security Council, dismissed any theories suggesting complacency amongst Nato leaders concerning their aid to Ukraine during a preliminary briefing on Monday.
The original premise was met with contention, pushing the conversation back by three months to evaluate the unfulfilled negative prophecies shared by others about our position at the summit, in relation to Ukraine’s status. In response to these dire forecasts, a substantial support package for Ukraine was initiated when President Biden sanctioned a supplementary Act in late April. An additional €61 billion was then placed in aid for Ukraine, along with the implementation of six presidential drawdown bundles. It is projected that prior to the summit, 20 nations would have ratified bilateral security treaties that offer a decade of aid to maintain Ukraine’s future forces.
This is in addition to the support offered directly by NATO itself: the NATO Security Assistance for Ukraine Programme. This initiative is set to establish a complete command to aid Ukraine, offering training coordination, logistics assistance, security support, and force development. This paves the path to membership and places Ukraine in a position where it would be fully prepared from the outset once there’s political will for it to join the alliance. Such progress over only a quarter of a year is quite striking when withholding the negative projections concerning where NATO and its allies would be.
That isn’t to mention the tragic news that crossed the Atlantic while table settings were arranged in Washington: word of a deadly missile strike on Kyiv by Russia with at least 35 casualties. The attack, which included a blast targeting the largest children’s hospital in the country, Ohmatdyt hospital, led to ongoing rescue operations seeking survivors in the rubble. Consequently, Carpenter announced that a further airstrike defence declaration, along with a declaration of F16 military aircraft, was on the horizon.
During and post his term as the US President, Donald Trump fiercely critiqued the insufficient defence expenditure by NATO allies compared to the US. Now, this year’s summit aims to underscore the fact that although only nine alliance member nations fulfilled the defence spending agreement of 2% of GDP when Biden first entered the Oval Office, that number has increased to 23 members attaining or exceeding the 2% GDP defence spending standard.
As the week’s events unfold, the international spotlight isn’t just on the content of the discussions, but the performance and focus of President Biden. Leaders and ministers in attendance will keenly observe him, looking for any measurable hints on whether he will remain the US’s representative to Nato in the coming year.
The ex-US representative to Nato, Kurt Volker, commented on Monday regarding the underlying discourse at this week’s event programme. “Will Biden continue his presidency? Is he competent enough? Does he plan to run for another term? Can he get re-elected? If so, what implications would this entail? Many allies already express their apprehensions about what they perceive as an unwillingness to commit to overcoming Russia in Ukraine. Then arises a subsequent concern; if he fails to do so and it’s president Trump returning, what impact will this have on US’s backing for Nato and Ukraine?”