NATO’s summit in Washington<\/a>, with US President Joe Biden hailing on Wednesday pledges by member states to invest in defense.<\/p>\n“We can and will defend every inch of NATO territory, and we will do it together.”<\/p>\n
The decision will send to Germany the most potent U.S. weapons to be based on the European continent since the Cold War.<\/p>\n
A US-Germany statement said the longer-term plan is to station in Europe weapons such as Tomahawk and hypersonic missiles, which “have significantly longer range than current land-based fires” there.<\/p>\n
In a summit declaration released on Wednesday, the NATO member states said:
\n“We cannot discount the possibility of an attack against Allies\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 sovereignty and territorial integrity.”<\/p>\n
The declaration also announced a plan to provide Ukraine with at least US$43 billion in military aid within the next year.<\/p>\n
It stopped short of the multi-year commitment NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had sought.<\/p>\n
But the group did formalize Ukraine’s “irreversible path” to joining the security alliance in the document, as Stoltenberg explained at a media briefing.<\/p>\n
“The work we are doing together now will ensure that when the time is right, Ukraine can join without delay. It is not a question of if, but when.”<\/p>\n
There was also strong language on China, with the 32 NATO allies jointly labeling the country a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
“China provides dual use equipment, microelectronics, and a lot of other tools, which are enabling Russia to build the missiles, to build the bombs, to build the aircrafts, to build the weapons they’re using to attack Ukraine.”<\/p>\n
The NATO leaders said they are “open to constructive engagement” with Beijing.<\/p>\n
But that they are also boosting their “shared awareness” against what they called China’s “coercive tactics and efforts to divide the Alliance”.<\/p>\n
After viewing a draft of the communique, a spokesperson for the Chinese mission to the European Union slammed the statement as full of “belligerent rhetoric” as well as “provocations, lies, incitement and smears”.<\/p>\n