VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) – Follow alongside for updates on the summit of the NATO navy alliance in Lithuania’s capital:
What to know:
– Turkey’s choice to finish opposition to Sweden’s NATO membership boosts summit
– Sweden’s rocky highway from neutrality towards NATO membership
– What is NATO doing to assist Ukraine within the warfare with Russia?
– Ukraine, protection plans and Sweden’s membership prime summit agenda
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Lithuania and several other of its allies have beefed up safety for the NATO summit, with as many as 12,000 troops backed by warships, air protection methods and artillery deployed for the two-day assembly.
Lithuanian authorities say virtually 50 overseas delegations with 2,400 representatives are gathering in Vilnius, together with 40 presidents or prime ministers and as much as 150 different high-ranking politicians.
Germany provided Patriot missile protection for the summit that begins Tuesday, whereas Spain supplied short- to medium-range NASAM floor methods.
The summit in Lithuania’s capital is being held about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border with Russian ally Belarus, the place the chief of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was granted refuge following a short-lived revolt in opposition to the Russian authorities final month.
Border management measures have been launched final week at main airports, sea ports and on land borders with Lithuania’s fellow European Union members Poland and Latvia.
Meanwhile, NATO warships are patrolling off the coast of Lithuania, together with vessels from Germany, the United States, Italy and Poland, in response to the commander of Lithuania’s navy, Giedrius Premeneckas.
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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has urged all NATO members to satisfy the alliance’s goal of spending the equal of two% of nationwide financial output on protection.
According to new NATO estimates launched final week, 11 of the 31 member international locations will attain that concentrate on this yr.
As the Western alliance’s annual summit opened in Lithuania’s capital on Tuesday, Sunak mentioned Britain was devoting “record amounts” to protection, partly to make its business “ready for the challenges ahead.”
“And that’s something we need to see across NATO, starting with meeting the 2% commitment,” he mentioned.
After Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, NATO members dedicated to maneuver towards spending 2% of gross home product on nationwide navy budgets inside a decade. They are anticipated throughout this week’s summit to set that degree at least goal – a flooring somewhat than a ceiling.
Sunak mentioned NATO members “have witnessed the most terrible crimes and human tragedies in Ukraine” since Russia invaded its neighbor 16 1/2 months in the past. He says the alliance has “come together like never before in support of Ukraine and with firm determination that Russia cannot succeed.”
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Hungary’s overseas minister says his nation’s ratification of Sweden’s bid to hitch NATO is only a “technical matter” after Turkey’s president indicated he would his nation’s opposition to the Scandinavian nation becoming a member of the alliance.
In a Facebook put up Tuesday, Peter Szijjarto wrote that the Hungarian authorities’s place on Sweden “is clear: the government supports NATO membership, which is why we tabled a proposal to this effect in Parliament many months ago. It is now only a technical matter to complete the ratification process.”
Turkey and Hungary are the one NATO members that haven’t but ratified Sweden’s accession paperwork.
Hungarian President Katalin Novak tweeted that she has requested Prime Minister Viktor Obran “to do everything possible to ensure that the #Hungarian Parliament also contributes to the enlargement of the defense #Alliance as soon as possible.”
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