NATO Summit Opening Meeting amidst Contradictions and Disputes | NATO | Summit
On July 6th, at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg held a press conference after the meeting. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zheng Huansong
Vilnius, Lithuania - The two-day NATO summit opened on July 11th. NATO member countries still have differences on many issues, while the international community continues to voice criticism and opposition.
NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg said before the start of the summit that the key topics of the summit include aid plans for Ukraine and its prospects for joining NATO, strengthening eastern defense to enhance NATO's defense and deterrence capabilities, and so on. In addition, NATO will also establish the NATO Ukraine Council, and Ukrainian President Zelensky will attend the first meeting of the Council on the 12th.
NATO member countries have differences on major issues. Regarding the issue of Ukraine, although NATO member countries generally support providing assistance to Ukraine, their positions on Ukraine's accession to NATO are inconsistent. Some Central and Eastern European member countries support accepting Ukraine as soon as possible, but the United States and others hold reservations about this. German Federal Parliament member Sevim Dadellen recently said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that the NATO summit may further escalate the crisis in Ukraine.
Zelensky posted on social media that day, stating that according to the information he has, NATO's ongoing discussions on Ukraine only involve invitations and do not involve its membership, and there is no clear "time frame". This is "unprecedented and absurd", and NATO's "uncertainty" implies weakness.
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On the 11th, Russian President's press secretary Peskov told the media that the Vilnius NATO summit has a "clear and concentrated" anti Russian nature. The issue of Ukraine joining NATO is very dangerous, and those who will make relevant decisions must be aware of this.
On the issue of NATO's eastward expansion, supporters of the British anti war group Stop War Alliance held protests and demonstrations in Glasgow, Durham and other places on the 8th, stating that "NATO's efforts to expand into Eastern Europe are an integral part of the development of the Ukrainian crisis.". On the same day, during a parade held in Paris, France, participant Serge said that NATO represents war, and war is a means for the United States to engage in expansionism, using the people of other countries to serve its own economic interests.
In addition, some media reports suggest that due to opposition from some member countries, the summit will not discuss the establishment of a NATO liaison office in Japan. French President Macron had expressed clear opposition to this issue before the summit. Former Australian Prime Minister Keating recently agreed with Macron's opposition to NATO's expansion into Asia, stating that all parties involved should always remember NATO's geographical positioning of the North Atlantic.
Helga Zep Larush, founder and chairman of the Schiller Institute, a German think tank, pointed out that NATO, which was supposed to end after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991, has shifted from a regional defensive organization to a global aggressive treaty with the aim of maintaining a unipolar world structure. NATO's expansion into the Indo Pacific region is very dangerous, and its expansion ambitions pose the greatest threat to peace.