Closing summary
We’ll be closing this blog soon and starting a new one to cover the highly anticipated press conference by the US president, Joe Biden, to close out the Nato summit. Please do join me, Léonie Chao-Fong, on our new live blog.
Here’s a recap of the day’s main developments:
The US announced a new security package for Ukraine worth $225m, which includes a Patriot missile battery, additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems and missiles, among other items. President Joe Biden told Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy “we will stay with you, period” ahead of a bilateral meeting on Thursday.
US president, Joe Biden, is scheduled to face journalists at a news conference marking the end of Nato’s 75th anniversary summit at 6.30pm ET. The US president’s press conference, which will include questions from reporters, is certain to be scrutinised for any signs of slip-ups.
Ukraine’s president Zelenskiy urged Nato allies to lift restrictions on its use of long-range weapons against targets in Russia. Zelenskiy said doing so would be a “game-changer” in its war with Moscow, adding: “If we want to win, if we want to prevail, to save our country and to defend it, we need to lift all the limitations.”
Hungary does not want, and will not support, Nato becoming an “anti-China” bloc, foreign minister Peter Szijjarto told Hungary’s state television while in Washington DC. Speaking on the sidelines of a Nato summit, Szijjarto also said Ukraine’s admission to the alliance would weaken unity within the group
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that any possibility of a direct confrontation between Russia and Nato was “worrying”. He added: “Any steps that could lead to this outcome should be consciously avoided.”
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, will fly to Mar-a-Lago on Thursday to meet with Donald Trump, according to two sources with knowledge of the meeting. Orbán has enraged his Nato allies by meeting with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping en route to the alliance’s summit in Washington DC. He has also met with Zelenskiy in Kyiv, and is said to be quietly negotiating his own ceasefire plan without consulting either the Biden administration or other EU countries.
Biden has appeared to back Keir Starmer’s ambition for the UK having a closer relationship with the EU as the leaders held their first bilateral talks at the White House on Wednesday evening. The US president called the US and the UK the “best of allies” as he met the new prime minister in the Oval Office, describing the UK as the “knot” that tied the transatlantic relationship together.
France, Germany, Italy and Poland signed a letter of intent to develop ground-launched cruise missiles with a range beyond 500km (310 miles), aiming to fill what they say is a gap in European arsenals exposed by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Speaking on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Washington DC after the signing ceremony, French defence minister Sébastien Lecornu said the new missile was meant to serve as a deterrent.
Norway will donate 1bn Norwegian kroner ($92.69m) in support to Ukraine for its air defence, prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre said at the Nato summit. The donation comes a day after Norway announced it would give six F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine to help it in defence efforts against Russian air attacks.
Russia will act to counter the planned US deployment of long-range missiles in Germany, the Kremlin said, as it regarded the Nato military alliance’s actions as a serious threat to Russia’s national security.
Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz said that France remained a key partner on the international stage as leader Emmanuel Macron struggles to build a coalition government after elections. “France will be on the international agenda a big partner, a strong partner of all of us, and especially a partner for Germany,” Scholz said at the Nato summit on Thursday.
Romania, Bulgaria and Greece signed a deal to enable swift cross-border movement of troops and weapons to Nato’s eastern flank, Romania’s defence ministry said. The planned harmonised military mobility corridor between the three Nato and EU states was one of two such mobility corridors agreed on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Washington DC.
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On the face of it, it was a busy Nato summit, not short of outcomes: badly needed air defence systems and fighter jets for Ukraine and a commitment that Kyiv was on an “irreversible path” to membership – plus a cross-alliance warning to China for its discreet help to Russia as it continues its assault on Ukraine.
Yet, behind the activity lurks the cliff-edge of the US election. In the Washington heat, the worry is not so much about Joe Biden’s health, but the Democrats’ ability to defeat Donald Trump in the November election. The reality is that Nato will struggle if the US is sceptical, fitful or unengaged.
During the last Trump presidency, Nato survived by hunkering down, making minimal commitments during a period of less geopolitical uncertainty. This time, with a major war continuing on the edge of Europe, a dysfunctional Nato is not obviously an attractive option, but it nevertheless lingers.
Read the full report here:
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