Biden and NATO leaders enter summit with a show of force as Turkey agrees to Sweden’s membership

President Joe Biden and alliance leaders enter the first day of the high-stakes NATO Summit Tuesday with a reinvigorated sense of unity after a major win on Monday evening when Turkey agreed to Sweden’s bid to join the alliance.

The leaders gather here in Vilnius, Lithuania, for a two-day summit that could become one of the most consequential gatherings for the alliance in modern history, coming about a month into Ukraine’s slow counteroffensive and weeks after a failed mutiny in Russia became a major threat to President Vladimir Putin’s leadership.

While national security experts had warned that a failure to admit Sweden to NATO could portend cracks in the alliance, Monday evening’s announcement – which came just hours after Biden landed in the Lithuanian capital city – marks a stunning about-face from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has blocked the accession bid for more than a year.

Biden and other members have touted unprecedented unity among the alliance in the face of Russia’s war, and the move also provides leaders a significant show of force going into the summit.

The Swedes will not join the alliance right away – it will take a parliamentary procedure in Turkey to formally approve their membership and Hungary must also drop their objections, which it is expected to do now that Erdoğan is on board.

Biden called for “swift ratification” in a statement following the news.

There will be other critical matters for the US president to address in Vilnius this week, including his controversial decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine – which are banned by more than 100 nations, including some key US allies. There are also questions for leaders about a pathway for Ukraine to eventually join NATO, and the possibility of additional security assistance, with President Volodymyr Zelensky expected to…