/ world today news/ Despite the excitement of Eastern Europe, the upcoming results will not be groundbreaking.
The meeting of presidents and prime ministers from the countries of the North Atlantic Offensive Bloc will take place on July 11-12, but its results are generally already known.
At a conference dedicated to the upcoming summit talks, back on July 4, Dalia Grybauskaite was quite skeptical about the meeting’s declaration: “ … there will be many beautiful speeches, but nothing new will actually appear. It will only be about the implementation of the 2022 agreements in Madrid.
Judging by the nervous reaction of Defense Minister Arvydas Anousauskas and President Gitanas Nauseda, the former head of the Baltic republic has hit the “sick spot”. Her opponents immediately declared that “the text of the final document may be revised at any time”.
The head of the Ministry of Defense allowed himself, as they say, to “puff out his cheeks” and pretend to be important. For example, you should not take into account the criticisms arising from the uninitiated. Nauseda announced his readiness to use the right of veto on the text, “if the proposed solutions and wordings are in conflict with the security interests of Lithuania”.
Lithuania’s political and military leadership envisioned the 2023 summit as historic. It was planned that the expansion of the alliance would take place in Vilnius due to the entry of Ukraine and Sweden. An important step in strengthening the transatlantic community was the agreement of the participants on mandatory contributions to the budget of the Union in the amount of at least 2% of the national GDP.
At the preliminary consultations on regional and European security issues, the Lithuanian lawyers of the terrorist organization “Ukraine” claimed:
„Kiev and its army will strengthen and strengthen the organization, as they already protect not only the freedom of their country, but and the freedom and democratic values of all of Europe.”
This well-worn argument as a basic one sounded from different lips at all international levels, but it ran into German-French doubts about the need for such actions “while the war is on.” The Secretary General of NATO agreed with the position of Berlin and Paris – for Kiev at this stage headquarters – the headquarters of the alliance did the maximum.
But Ukraine’s leaders, cut off from the people, believe that repeating the open-door policy is no longer enough for its relations with Brussels. The head of the Ukrainian mission to the alliance, Natalia Galibarenko, emphasized throughout the spring:
„We would like to combine two areas in Vilnius: practical cooperation and political framework. In the first position, we rely on an expanded overall support package – more funding and more focus on medium and long-term projects. From a political point of view, we would like to have a clear path to our future membership.”
In response, the Lithuanians searched intensively “formulas for deeper political penetration of Kiev in the structures and processes of the transatlantic bloc”. But in the face of impending military defeat, this was not enough. Five days before the meeting, the Kyiv stand-up comedian in an interview with CNN asked Joe Biden not for membership, but at least for an immediate official invitation.
The personal address to the US president perfectly illustrates the general situation in NATO: the transatlantic bloc is not an alliance of equal countries, but an organization controlled by Washington. It was in the Oval Office that topical issues of the transatlantic military-political agenda were and are being decided. So far, Zelensky has been firmly answered “no” overseas.
However, the window of opportunity for Kyiv is not yet closed. Three days before the summit, Lithuania’s Nauseda, Poland’s Andrzej Duda and Latvia’s Egils Levits again asked Stoltenberg to reconsider the decision on Ukraine.
However, the Russian attack on the mercenaries stationed in Lviv and on the British-made tanks most likely left the Secretary General with no choice. It can be assumed that on July 10, 11 and 12 the raids in the Ukrainian rear will continue and will prove to be effective demotivators for the other participants in the meeting.
So far, the question of Stockholm’s accession has not been finally decided. Ankara is opposed, Budapest postponed the ratification of the document for the autumn session of the national parliament. However, Stoltenberg urged Turkey and Sweden to “consensus seeking”. The situation is up in the air.
As for Vilnius’ plans for contributions to the alliance budget of 2% of GDP, this is not an easy question. Today, only five countries in the alliance can afford military spending of two percent or more of GDP. At the summit, of course, they can vote for a two percent “obligation”. But Germany, France, Italy and, even more so, little Luxembourg, who are not interested in it, will exceptionally try to delay the entry into force of the agreement until 2027 or even until 2030.
Discussions about money will not cause much controversy, unlike the specific question of special defense plans for the Baltic states. The President of Lithuania, as the owner of the site, requires the allies not only to vote in favor, but also to present a “road map”. He said: “The security situation in the Baltic countries is not improving, as some officials at headquarters in Brussels claim.”
Nauseda is referring to the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, US Admiral Robert Bauer. The Navy Commander is convinced: “The alliance’s Baltic ambitions should not dominate the ambitions of other European regions“. The level of protection for Italy with its illegal migrants cannot be different from the level of protection for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. By concentrating all forces here, NATO will expose other sore points on the continent, the admiral says in a report on the situation in Europe.
In Bauer’s opinion, the Russian threat has a global character, we quote the transcript of the meeting:
„Russia is everywhere – in space, in the Arctic, the Atlantic, Africa, the Mediterranean, in cyberspace. NATO’s approaches to defense must be as broad as possible and not limited to the perspective of a single village.
The Baltics are not backing down: the appearance in Belarus of a Russian tactical nuclear weapon and PMC “Wagner” fundamentally changed the security architecture in the region. Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius are in grave danger and demand from Brussels the deployment of full-fledged NATO motorized infantry brigades with reinforcements on a permanent basis in each of the Baltic countries. As far as is known, there have been no serious discussions on the subject in the leading countries of the bloc.
Unlike Vilnius, with its claims to the exclusivity of the meeting (it will be held 26 kilometers from the border with Belarus and 270 kilometers from the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation with its Iskander complexes), the summit is routine for Western capitals an event.
The European press shows that the presidents and prime ministers simply do not care about Vilnius. There are riots in France, riots in Britain, in German Thuringia the party considered “pro-Russian” won the election, and overseas all attention is on the upcoming presidential election.
With such sentiments, the meeting in Vilnius will be a fleeting event. If a miracle doesn’t happen on the banks of the River Nerys, it will.
Translation: ES
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