Biden and NATO leaders enter summit with show of force as Turkey accepts Sweden’s membership | CNN Politics

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President Joe Biden and alliance leaders enter the first day of the high-level NATO Summit on Tuesday with a renewed sense of unity after a major victory on Monday night when Türkiye accepted Sweden’s offer to join the alliance.

Leaders meet here in Vilnius, Lithuania, for a two-day summit that could become one of the most important meetings for the alliance in modern history, about a month after Ukraine’s slow counteroffensive and weeks after a failed mutiny in Russia became a major threat. for the leadership of President Vladimir Putin.

While national security experts have warned that not admitting Sweden to NATO could herald cracks in the alliance, Monday night’s announcement, which came just hours after Biden landed in the Lithuanian capital, marks a surprising change of heart from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. , which has blocked the membership offer for more than a year.

Biden and other members have touted unprecedented unity among the alliance on the Russia war, and the move also provides the leaders with an important show of force ahead of the summit.

The Swedes will not join the alliance immediately: a parliamentary procedure in Turkey will be needed to formally approve their membership and Hungary must also drop its objections, which it is expected to do now that Erdogan is on board.

Biden called for “expedited ratification” in a statement after the news broke.

There will be other critical issues 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 countries, including some key US allies. There are questions for leaders about the path for Ukraine to eventually join NATO, and the possibility of additional security assistance, with President Volodymyr Zelensky He is expected to attend in person on Wednesday and hold an in-person meeting with Biden.

The meeting will mark another sign of unity, as Zelensky’s attendance at the summit had been in doubt. Russia’s war in Ukraine is high on the NATO leaders’ agenda along with discussion of a future path for the war-torn Country To Join The Alliance, which has caused some division among the leaders.

In a positive sign of Ukraine’s efforts to join NATO, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the alliance has agreed to allow Kiev to bypass a detailed formal process in its application to join the alliance. Kuleba said in a tweet on Monday that “after intensive talks, NATO allies have reached a consensus on removing the MAP (Membership Action Plan) from Ukraine’s path to membership.”

But in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria Biden last week said Ukraine is not yet ready to join NATO and said Russia’s war in Ukraine must end before the alliance can consider adding Kyiv to their ranks.

The summit also comes days after the United States announced it would send cluster munitions to Ukraine for the first time, a move aimed at bolstering Ukraine’s offensive capabilities that has sparked some public disagreement from allied countries, a move Biden called a “tough decision”. ”In his interview with Zakaria, but it was necessary because Ukraine is running out of ammunition.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told reporters over the weekend that the UK is “a signatory to a convention that prohibits the production or use of cluster munitions and discourages their use.”

But national security adviser Jake Sullivan tried to downplay any concerns that Biden’s decision to send cluster munitions presented a “fracture” with allied countries that oppose the use of such equipment, saying the US. has not received any negative feedback from allies since the announcement.

“I don’t think they see fracture, division or disunity… as a result of this decision. Although many allies of the signatories to (the Oslo Convention) are in a position where they themselves cannot say: ‘We are in favor of cluster munitions.’ But we haven’t heard anything from people saying that this casts doubt on our commitment, casts doubt on the unity of the coalition, or casts doubt on our belief that the United States is playing a vital and positive role as the leader of this coalition in Ukraine.” , said. saying.

At the start of the day, Biden will participate in an official arrival ceremony and a bilateral meeting with the host of the summit, the President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda. She will also take part in an official greeting with Nausėda and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who recently agreed to extend his term for another year. NATO leaders will take part in a family photo before their first meeting begins. And later on Tuesday, Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with Erdoğan on the sidelines of the summit, where the two are expected to discuss efforts to “(improve) defense and deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic area,” according to Biden’s statement.

Biden arrived in Vilnius on Monday night following a meeting with Sunak at 10 Downing Street and a climate engagement. exchange with King Charles III at Windsor Castle, marking the president’s first meeting with the monarch since his coronation.