President Joe Biden got almost everything he wanted from the NATO summit.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shot for the stars and reached the moon – securing a permanent rearmament pipeline well into the future from G7 nations but failing to win the collective defense guarantee that membership in NATO would bring.
And Russia saw its strategic and military failure entrenched but will surely view the institutionalizing of support for Ukraine as confirming its suspicions of the West.
Poignantly, the meeting hosted by a former Soviet vassal state whose NATO status secured the freedom, independence and prosperity that Zelensky craves for his country, was overshadowed by the torment of the Ukrainian people.
“It’s just like something out of the 14th century the way they are acting,” Biden said, narrowing his eyes in disbelief at the Russian assault on civilians.
Zelensky, who came into the summit as a guest boiling with frustration at the alliance’s unwillingness to give him a timeline for NATO membership, nevertheless contextualized what US and Western help means, in moving remarks to Biden.
“You spend this money for our lives. And I think that we save the lives for Europe and for all the world,” Zelensky told Biden.
The summit ended on Wednesday with a joint declaration from G7 leaders for their nations to negotiate long-term bilateral security commitments for Ukraine to build up its land, sea and air defenses to deter future Russian attacks. The move is a halfway house measure designed to tide Ukraine over until a future moment when it could join NATO and enjoy the “attack on one, is an attack on all” umbrella its members enjoy – a moment that the alliance has yet to determine.
Zelensky arrived at the summit blasting the bloc’s refusal to offer a timeline as “absurd.” But Biden…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply