NATO Into the Future: Key Topics at Day Three of the NATO Summit

The NATO summit in Washington, D.C. has come to a close. Ukraine remained the most prominent topic of conversation, as has been the case for most NATO meetings since the war began over two years ago..Out of the meeting came a number of promises for more aid to Ukraine, commitments from member states to meet NATO's obligatory defense budget of 2% of a nation's GDP, and a number of cooperation agreements between many of NATO's member states..Largely avoided before, China was also an issue featured prominently at the summit, and continuous condemnations were offered for China's support of Russia in the ongoing war in Ukraine..Let's take a look at day three of the NATO summit..Promises of Aid.Several different nations announced aid packages of varying size for Ukraine..Canada and the US announced substantial aid packages for Ukraine. US President Joe Biden announced that an aid package for Ukraine valued at $225 million USD during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The package includes the already announced Patriot air defense battery and Stinger anti-aircraft weapons, as well as ammunition for already-in-place surface-to-air missile systems, ammunition for the US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), more Javelin anti-tank weapons, as well as 155mm and 105mm shells..Canada on Wednesday announced its own aid package of $500 million CAD ($367 million USD). The exact details of Canada's aid package are not known. However, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did announce that Canada intends to open training opportunities for Ukrainian F-16 pilots..NATO as a whole has stated they will seek to provide more training opportunities for Ukrainian troops, both for F-16 flight training as well as general training purposes. For this purpose, there is to be a command center established in Germany, and several logistics hubs in eastern Europe. In total, these centers are to be staffed by approximately 700 NATO personnel..Andriy Yermak, the head of President Zelenskyy's cabinet, said that Ukraine was "satisfied" with the outcome of the summit, which has seen a number of aid packages promised to Ukraine, as well as affirmation that Ukraine's path to NATO membership is "irreversible.".However, there remained one pressing Ukrainian request that had not been fulfilled. Ukraine has requested that all restrictions on carrying out strikes deep in Russia be lifted. This request was partially granted when UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer permitted Ukrainian use of Storm Shadow missiles to strike inside Russia. The US, however, has remained firm on the matter. President Zelenskyy thanked NATO and the West for its support, but reiterated this request in some of his closing remarks at the summit..Further, other than the present war with Russia, one pressing issue remains for Ukrainian entry into NATO. Hungary has expressed that they do not support Ukrainian entry into NATO, with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter Szijjarto stating that Ukrainian entry into NATO "wouldn't strengthen, but weaken the alliance's unity." For a nation to ascend to NATO, all member states must unanimously agree on their entry..This notion delayed the entry of both Finland and Sweden, as Hungary and Turkey had initially refused to grant them entry..Meeting Targets.Throughout the summit, there has been lots of conversation surrounding NATO's obligatory 2% of GDP spending mark for defence, which nations are meeting that mark, and which nations are not..For the 2024/2025 fiscal year, 23 out of 32 NATO member states will be hitting the 2% mark, with a number surpassing it. Pressure has increased substantially on those not meeting the mark..Almost all of the nations yet to reach 2% provided a plan or timeline to do so, except for Canada. Canada had been facing increasing pressure after April when PM Trudeau announced a new defense policy that would bring Canada to 1.76% by 2030..Today, PM Trudeau finally revealed that Canada expects to hit the 2% mark by 2032. He did not offer many details about how Canada planned to get there, but Defence Minister Bill Blair did announce that Canada was purchasing 12 conventionally-powered arctic-capable submarines..Canada is one of NATO's largest spenders by dollar amount. However, it is also one of the largest economies, and so this is not reflected in the percentage of its GDP, with Canada's defense budget only making up 1.34% of its GDP..Meetings at the Sidelines.Thursday was again a busy day for President Zelenskyy, who held meetings with a number of leaders and officials and led a speech at the NATO summit. President Zelenskyy met with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, the leaders of NATO's Indo-Pacific partner states (Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Japan), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian President Giorgia Meloni, and US President Joe Biden..Notably, Erdogan discussed with his Ukrainian counterpart that efforts were being made to revive the Black Sea grain deal, a deal between Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey that allowed for the transit and sale of Ukrainian grain via the black sea..Russia canceled the deal, which led to food insecurity and concerns amongst a number of nations in the Middle East and Africa that are dependent or partially dependent upon Ukrainian grain..PM Starmer also held a number of meetings, including with Turkish President Erdogan and PM Trudeau. In his meeting with Erdogan, the PM expressed "his aspiration to strengthen the bilateral relationship across trade, tourism, defense, counter-terrorism, energy, and the economy," as well as support for a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of hostages, and the expanded entry of aid..PM Starmer was questioned today about his meeting yesterday with President Biden, and was asked about the ongoing concerns that President Biden was not in good health. PM Starmer dismissed the concerns and stated that Biden was able to keep pace with him..The President's Press Conference.One of the most anticipated parts of the NATO summit was the end, when President Biden was set to hold a press conference. Not only was it his first in several months, but it also followed his rocky debate performance against former President Donald Trump late last month. Following the debate, questions were raised as to the President's health and his ability to lead. Many began to look to this conference to provide a clear sign on if the concerns were warranted or not..Many of the questions fielded to President Biden by attending journalists were in relation to these concerns, his thoughts regarding Democratic allies who had called for him to step down, and his faith in Vice President Kamala Harris to lead in his stead should the need arise..President Biden mistakenly referred to VP Harris as "Vice President Trump" when answering a question on if he thought she would be qualified to become the President.."Look, I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be Vice President if I did not think she was qualified to be President." -US President Joe Biden.This followed an incident earlier in the day, when the President mistakenly introduced President Zelenskyy as "President Putin," the Russian President..Despite the persistent questions from journalists about his health and ability to lead, President Biden remained steadfast in saying that he was qualified for the job, and intends to "finish what we started" in a second term..Besides these questions, there were a few notable aspects of President Biden's conference, which began with several attacks on Trump regarding NATO, economic issues, and border security..Firstly, there was a notable conversation surrounding the Israel-Gaza War, ceasefire prospects, and the course of the war..President Biden stated that "Israel was occasionally less than cooperative" in regards to the expansion of aid delivery into Gaza. Further, he stated that the details of a ceasefire are currently being "hammered out" after Hamas and Israel had both agreed to the "framework" of a ceasefire deal President Biden had outlined several weeks ago..The deal proposed a complete and permanent ceasefire, a release of all hostages, and a complete withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza, among other things..While Biden presented the deal as Israeli-proposed, Israel expressed apprehension about several aspects of the deal, namely the permanence of the ceasefire and the complete withdrawal..Israel has remained insistent that a ceasefire cannot be permanent without the destruction of Hamas, and has also insisted upon establishing its own security over Gaza in a post-war setting..This is contrary to the US, which is pushing for the establishment of a Palestinian state and for a reformed Palestinian Authority to hold jurisdiction over the Gaza Strip..In this regard, President Biden stated that he had previously told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "not make the same mistake we did in Afghanistan," and establish an untenable occupation..Lastly, President Biden stated that the US does have a plan to interrupt cooperation between Russia and China, which has increased significantly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began over two years ago. However, he stated he could not speak on this plan publicly, and so the details are unknown..End of the Summit.The summit produced a number of agreements and promises and highlighted a lengthy list of challenges facing NATO in the future. The summit also produced a number of plans to meet these challenges, but only time will tell if NATO's ideas are successful, and the alliance is able to meet the challenges ahead of them..Days one and two were covered by this publication, which may be viewed in the links provided.