US President Joe Biden meets his fellow NATO leaders on Tuesday for a landmark 75th anniversary summit aimed at projecting strength and shoring up support for Ukraine in its defence against the Russian invasion.
However, questions surrounding Biden's mental fitness for office loom over the summit, as the US presidential race heats up between the president and his predecessor, longtime NATO critic Donald Trump.
Founded in Washington in 1949 by the United States and 11 other countries at the onset of the Cold War to deter the expansion of the communist Soviet Union, NATO has grown to 32 members with Sweden and Finland's recent entry.
The alliance is a collective security pact in which, according to Article 5 of the NATO founding treaty, an attack on one member "shall be considered an attack against them all."
Article 5 has been only invoked once, after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, killed nearly 3,000 people in the US.
Despite the importance of NATO to US foreign relations, Trump has openly cast doubt on US collective defence commitments during his term of office and threatened to withdraw over defence spending rows.
Trump has railed against European allies that do not meet NATO's defence spending target of 2% of national gross domestic product (GDP).
Several NATO allies have increased their defence budgets since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Last month, outgoing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced on a visit to Washington that 23 NATO allies will spend 2% of GDP on defence, up from 18 members.
Biden has resisted calls to withdraw from the presidential race and may use the summit to dispel doubts over his health, while NATO tries to entrench its support for Ukraine in the event Trump returns to the White House.
Stoltenberg announced the alliance is set to provide Ukraine with military aid worth €40 billion ($43 billion) in 2025 in a press conference ahead of the summit.
But the €40-billion pledge has been watered down from the multi-year financial commitment for Ukraine that Stoltenberg wanted allies to agree. The alliance will review the military aid again next year, weakening the package further.
Stoltenberg also said he expects new commitments at the Washington summit to provide Ukraine with more air defence systems to protect against Russia's bombing attacks.
NATO commitments of future support for Ukraine are also meant to signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he could not succeed in his invasion of Ukraine.
Another part of the secretary general's plan to shield Ukraine from political change in the United States is a new support project for Ukraine called NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), approved by NATO defence ministers in June.
The project in Wiesbaden, Germany is to be staffed by 700 officials. Previously, NATO countries have been coordinating support to Ukraine through an informal, US-led group called the Ukraine Defence Contact Group.
The contact group's reliance on US coordination has European allies worried that it could falter if November's presidential election returns Trump to the White House, as they doubt his willingness to support Ukraine's war effort.
Allies are also expected to commit to working closer together to expand production in their defence industries as well as develop more joint procurement projects together.
Another leader watched closely in Washington will be Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán who met Putin on a surprise trip to Moscow after visiting Kiev for the first time since Russia invaded.
Stoltenberg said he expects allies to discuss Orbán's meeting with Putin and "address the discussions he had in Moscow."
The Hungarian prime minister also took an unannounced visit to China, holding talks with President Xi Jinping on what he described as a "peace mission" before the NATO summit.
NATO allies view Beijing as an important backer of Russia and are set to discuss Chinese support for the Russian economy especially the country's defence industry with supplies of critical technology.
As well as deciding on a new permanent NATO special envoy to Ukraine, the alliance is also expected to announce further support for Ukraine's eventual membership of NATO.
However, the US and Germany are against inviting Ukraine while the country is under attack from Russia. All allies must agree before Ukraine can be invited to join.
There will be no invitation at the Washington summit, though talks indicate the alliance may emphasize Ukraine's "irreversible" path to membership, according to a NATO diplomat.
In an interview with dpa ahead of the summit, Stoltenberg said he hopes Ukraine can join NATO within the next 10 years, aligning himself with allies who are counting on prompt progress to admit Ukraine, which was actually agreed in principle in 2008.
A series of commememorative events are scheduled in Washington on Tuesday with the alliance's formal talks planned to start on Wednesday.
The summit is Stoltenberg's last as secretary general. Former Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte is set to take over in October.
The summit will also be British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's first trip abroad since the Labour leader won a landslide victory in last week's general election.
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