Joe Biden in London, Jens Stoltenberg in Turkey: Key NATO leaders meet on Monday, ahead of a crucial summit in Vilnius, dominated by the Atlantic Alliance’s response to Russia’s war in Ukraine , and the membership applications of Kyiv and Stockholm.
While a new Russian bombardment on a humanitarian aid distribution center in Orikhiv killed at least four people on Monday and the Ukrainian counter-offensive is struggling, the members of the Alliance intend to give guarantees of their commitment to defend Ukraine.
kyiv on Monday claimed to have regained 14 km2 last week, i.e. 193 km2 since early June.
Arguing that it is crucial for Ukraine to join NATO’s protective umbrella to deter Moscow from launching new offensives in the future, Ukraine, but also the countries of Eastern Europe, are calling for a clear roadmap to the NATO summit in Lithuania which will end on Wednesday.
But Washington and Berlin are reluctant to go much further than a promise made by NATO that Ukraine would join one day, without specifying a timetable.
And Joe Biden said it clearly: “I don’t think she’s ready to be part of NATO,” he swept away in an interview with the American channel CNN about Ukraine, stressing also that there was no unanimity among the allies on the prospect of bringing Kiev “in the middle of a war”. “We would be at war with Russia if that were the case,” he warned.
But to show their support, several NATO heavyweights are negotiating possible long-term arms supply commitments to kyiv.
Cluster munitions criticized
The arms pledges would complement the tens of billions of dollars of equipment already delivered to Ukraine since Russia invaded Ukraine just over 500 days ago.
In the meantime, Ukraine has already obtained a promise from Washington on Friday to deliver cluster munitions, a very controversial weapon.
These weapons, banned in many countries, are strongly criticized because they kill indiscriminately by dispersing small explosive charges before or after the impact and are accused of causing many collateral civilian victims.
US President Joe Biden, who has defended his “difficult” decision, arrived in London on Monday to meet British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who called on Saturday to “discourage” the use of these weapons banned by the Oslo convention of 2008 signed by his country.
Russia has tackled an “admission of weakness”.
The war in Ukraine, which started on February 24, 2022 with a Russian invasion, has killed 9,000 civilians, including 500 children, according to the UN, which estimates that the death toll could be much higher.
Stoltenberg optimistic for Sweden
Another thorny issue that poisons NATO: the accession of Sweden, which wants to become the 32e member of the Alliance, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opposes.
The latter is meeting Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson for final negotiations, in the presence of Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who said he hoped for a positive outcome to these talks.
Sweden has been “invited” to the Alliance since June 2022, but its application has been blocked by Turkey. Hungary said it would accept if given the green light from Ankara.
Mr. Erdogan criticizes Sweden for its alleged leniency towards Kurdish militants who have taken refuge in the Scandinavian country and is calling for dozens of extraditions of militants whom she describes as “terrorists”.
Several convictions of Kurdish activists have been handed down in Sweden following a tightening of Swedish legislation which came into force in July 2022, in particular making it easier to prosecute for “terrorist financing”.
But a recent demonstration in Sweden, during which pages of the Koran were burned, has inflamed the Turkish president’s anger.
Sweden and its neighbor Finland ended decades of military non-alignment and asked to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Finland officially joined the Alliance in April.
A year ago, at the previous NATO summit in Madrid, it took hours of negotiation to wrest support from Erdogan for the initial invitation to Stockholm.