"This summit was aimed at strengthening our alliance and addressing the challenges of the world today and the threats we face in the future," Biden said.
Long-term conflicts have stalled Russia, and NATO leaders are leaving here taking historic steps to deal with the radically changing security situation. It gave the organization a new sense of purpose after years of rocking about how to approach Russia.
After officially inviting Finland and Sweden, the alliance is ready to grow. After Turkey withdrew its dissent, the roads between the two countries, each with a long history of military inconsistency, were cleared, giving a slightly unexpected boost when the summit began.
The leader has significantly strengthened the position of the troops along the eastern end of NATO and increased the number of high alert troops by a factor of seven. Byden has announced new replacement deployments of US troops in the Baltic Sea and Romania, new ships to Spain and planes to the United Kingdom, and for the first time a permanent Army garrison headquarters in Poland.
After avoiding this problem for years, NATO reveals in an updated mission statement that Russia now poses "the most serious threat to Allied security". Did. And it referred to China for the first time, stating that the up-and-coming partnership between Moscow and Beijing was "contrary to our values."
In summary, this outcome represents a fundamental change in the alliance and has been struggling for years to determine the best way to approach Russia. Fearing the eastern expansion of the alliance, President Vladimir Putin is now facing a much more united group.
"He wanted to reduce NATO," said Jens Stortenberg, Secretary-General this week. "Currently, President Putin is getting more NATO at the border."
But even the expanded and more muscular NATO is not enough to end the battle in Ukraine immediately. maybe.
Although the buzzword for this week's summit in Europe was "unification," there remains a personal disagreement among leaders about the next phase of the war. Some will drive a decisive victory on the battlefield, while others will have to make stronger attempts to mediate reconciliation, especially in the face of domestic economic decline.
"The consensus is that the war in Ukraine will last for a long time," said Avril Haines, director of the US National Intelligence Service, at a meeting on Wednesday, providing a rigorous short-term assessment. It will be a terrible battle.
Haynes said he believes time is on the Russian side, as he believes the West will eventually get tired of supporting Ukraine. "This is not a precursor to a peaceful solution," she said, admitting that the US assessment of the situation is "harsh."
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky urged NATO leaders to help regain the initiative during a speech at the Summit on Wednesday, a more modern way to fight the Russians. Called for artillery and sustained support.
"The war shouldn't be prolonged. We need more of these modern systems, modern artillery, to defeat the benefits of Russian artillery," Zelensky said.
