Sweden Membership Is NATO Summit’s ‘Million Dollar Question’—but Ukraine Will Be Its Focus

Defense ministers and other officials from all 31 nations in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) gather between July 11–12 in Vilnius, Lithuania, for a meeting that could define the 75-year-old alliance’s next century.
On tap is NATO’s first updated battle plan since the fall of the Soviet Union, a discussion about membership funding levels, Sweden’s proposed entry, and clarifications on “pathways” for Ukraine to join while drawing support from individual member nations, but not the alliance itself, in its war to repel Russia’s invasion.
And while no one from the Ukrainian government has been officially invited to attend, “Ukraine will be the most important item on the summit agenda next week,” said Sean Monaghan, a Visiting Fellow on Europe, Russia, and Eurasia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)….}