Publications

Leaders and guests of the 75-year-old NATO alliance met in Washington DC on 10-11 July. The NATO Washington Summit Declaration released by the leaders highlights reinforces collective defence, new instruments to coordinate assistance and training to Ukraine and pledges significant but unspecified long-term support related to Ukraine’s irreversible path towards NATO membership. The NATO summit outcome assessments are discussed by experts Henrik Larsen and Prof. Tomas Janeliūnas from the Eastern Europe Studies Centre.

Russian attacks and advances in Ukraine make it increasingly uncomfortable for NATO to stand passively on the sideline. NATO remains unlikely to take steps toward Ukraine’s accession but is now considering taking over the coordination of weapons supplies and training and creating a dedicated fund to sustain them long-term.

The policy debate about NATO’s burden sharing tends to focus on European members’ reluctance or failure to meet the two-percent-of-GDP minimum defense spending target. Redressing the transatlantic budgetary misbalance is indeed warranted because of the possibility of a re-election next year of Donald Trump or a like-minded Republican candidate, who would use Europe’s under-spending as an argument for reducing or withdrawing U.S. support for NATO and Ukraine.