Zelenskyi invited – NATO summit in US begins with 75th anniversary celebrations

In addition to the heads of state and government of the alliance states, numerous guests are expected at the meeting, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Representatives of the European Union, Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand will also participate. According to the Foreign Ministry, Austria will not attend the NATO summit for “planning reasons”, despite the invitation.

Scholz not worried about Biden
Before the meeting began, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reassured Ukraine of long-term support against Russia’s war of aggression. Asked whether he was worried that 81-year-old US President Joe Biden would be overwhelmed by the rigors of the three-day meeting, Scholz replied: “No, I don’t have those concerns. He knew that from his many.” conversations with Biden “He has prepared this summit with us very well and very precisely,” the Chancellor stressed. “In that respect too, this will be a very successful summit.”

Kremlin: NATO has declared Russia an enemy
Meanwhile, Russia says it wants to keep a close eye on the NATO summit. The spokesman for the presidential office in Moscow, Dmitry Peskov, emphasized this on Tuesday, pointing out that the transatlantic alliance had declared Russia an enemy that had to be defeated. The Russian government believes that NATO is fully engaged in Ukraine, Peskov told reporters.

Dealing with China will also be a problem
Ahead of the summit, China criticized NATO for its actions in the Asia-Pacific region and called on the defense alliance to rethink. Beijing opposes the slander of NATO and rejects the fact that it uses China as an excuse to advance into the Asia-Pacific region and stir up tensions there, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said in Beijing. The summit in the US capital will discuss further relations with China and increased NATO cooperation with partners in the Indo-Pacific.

In June, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg accused China of trying to give the impression that it was playing it cool in the conflict to avoid sanctions and keep trade flowing. “But the reality is that China is fueling the biggest armed conflict in Europe since World War II,” he said. At the same time, Beijing wants to maintain good relations with the West. “Well, Beijing can’t have it both ways,” he said. At some point, the allies would have to demand costs if China didn’t change course.

Two absent people will have a say at the summit
In any case, two people who are not present will have a say in what happens: Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose military aggression against Ukraine has given the Western defense alliance a second spring. The other is Donald Trump, whose chances of becoming US president again have increased in recent weeks. During his first term, he had already threatened to leave NATO, because he considered the defense spending of the European allies too low.

Trump’s possible re-election also raises concerns for Ukraine: during the US election campaign, the Republican repeatedly claimed that he could end the war of Russian aggression within 24 hours. However, it is clear that he does not want to help Ukraine to defeat Russia with additional military support.

Ukraine: Trump reportedly plans to break dangerous taboo
The online portal “Politico”, quoting people close to the Republican, reported that Trump was considering some kind of deal in which NATO would commit to not expanding further east. At the same time, he wanted to negotiate with Putin about how much Ukrainian territory Moscow would be allowed to keep. From the point of view of most European countries, such an approach would be a scandalous and at the same time extremely dangerous taboo breaking. Putin would then be able to claim his war as a success and be tempted into further aggression.