WASHINGTON—NATO held its annual summit this week in the nation’s capital, where alliance leaders rededicated themselves to Ukraine’s defense and issued a stern warning to China for its support of Russia.
The summit marked the alliance’s 75th anniversary, and national leaders were eager to walk away from the summit with deliverables for defending Ukraine amid a contentious election year in both the United States and Europe.
Allies announced that they had agreed to provide a minimum of 40 billion Euros in security assistance to Ukraine next year, and revealed that the embattled nation will finally receive F-16 fighter jets from Denmark and the Netherlands, which were promised last year.
NATO leaders also unveiled a new ballistic missile defense base in Poland, and plans for a new military command in Germany which will allow European allies to take over responsibility from the United States for training and equipping Ukrainian troops.
The summit culminated with the unveiling of the Ukraine Compact, a pledge to supply Ukraine with arms for the current conflict and to prepare plans to do so again in the event of a future conflict after the current war concludes.
Alliance leaders hailed the Compact as part of a comprehensive “bridge to membership,” through which Ukraine could eventually join the alliance and contribute to the collective defense.
“I strongly believe that when the fighting stops, we need to ensure that Ukraine has the capabilities to deter future aggression from Russia and they need security guarantees,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
“I believe that a way to ensure that it stops is a NATO membership.”
Comments from both Stoltenberg and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that NATO membership would not be made available to Ukraine until a ceasefire was obtained for the current war.
Ukraine’s NATO aspirations could complicate the pursuit of a ceasefire, however, as Russian President Vladimir Putin has made preventing Ukraine’s accession to the alliance a key war aim.
Not all allies were happy with the Compact’s language, and several member states with stronger political ties to Moscow refrained from signing.
The NATO member states that did not endorse the Compact include Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Slovakia, and Turkey.
Where the alliance did achieve unanimity was on the growing threat posed by communist China.
NATO issued a joint declaration condemning China as the “decisive enabler of Russia’s war against Ukraine.”
The communist regime’s strategic partnership with Moscow, and its continued economic and industrial support for the Russian defense industry, could not continue without consequences, the declaration said.
“The PRC cannot enable the largest war in Europe in recent history without this negatively impacting its interests and reputation,” the statement said, using an acronym for the official name of communist China, the People’s Republic of China.
The declaration also condemned China’s malign behavior in cyber, space, and nuclear development.
Stoltenberg said that the strong language was required to put China on notice, and to signal an understanding that the security of the Atlantic and Pacific regions was interconnected.
To that end, NATO hosted leaders from Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea to discuss matters pertaining to Indo-Pacific security and how to better cooperate on matters of global security, such as Chinese aggression and North Korean nuclear sabre rattling.
An Indo-Pacific working group also recognized the contributions that those nations had made to Ukraine, despite not being a part of NATO or the EU.
Likewise, Biden said in a press briefing that Chinese communist leader Xi Jinping “believes that China is a large enough market that they can entice any country” to bend to its will.
That misconception, he said, would need to be corrected.
“The issue is that we have to make sure that Xi understands there’s a price to pay for undercutting both the Pacific Basin, as well as Europe, and as relates to Russia and dealing with Ukraine,” Biden said.
