NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said as the summit wrapped up Thursday that member nations agreed on a “fundamental shift in our deterrence and defense” and sent Moscow a clear message that the alliance had a firm line drawn on its eastern frontier.
Over their three days of talks in Spain, NATO leaders formally invited Finland and Sweden to join the alliance, after overcoming opposition from Turkey. If the Nordic nations’ accession is approved by the 30 member nations, it will give NATO a new 800-mile border with Russia. “It is in our interest to continue working with our close partners in the south to fight shared challenges together,” Stoltenberg said.
“The question is, who’s next? Moldova? Or the Baltics? Or Poland? The answer is: all of them,” he said. The expansion will keep 100,000 troops in Europe for the foreseeable future, up from 80,000 before the war in Ukraine began.Biden said Putin had believed NATO members would splinter after he invaded Ukraine, but the Russian leader got the opposite response.
Britain, one of the nine, announced a further 1 billion pounds in military support to Ukraine on Thursday,