NATO leaders gathered in Washington are meeting the leaders of Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Ukraine on Thursday, on the third and final day of a summit that marked the alliance's 75th anniversary.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, NATO leaders announced further military support for Ukraine's efforts to repel the Russian invasion, including air-defence systems and a pledge to spend €40 billion ($43 billion) in the next year. They also declared Ukraine's future path to NATO membership "irreversible."
The final day of the summit is devoted to external relations: first a meeting with the four Indo-Pacific partners of Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, followed by the NATO-Ukraine Council with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Thursday that the summit had been "very successful." He said its focus is "increasing [NATO's] capabilities, increasing the strength of NATO, and also spending more for defence and organizing a successful deterrence."
The United States and Germany announced on Tuesday that the former would station long-range cruise missiles in Germany to strengthen NATO's deterrence in Europe.
"We know that there has been an incredible arms build-up in Russia, with weapons that threaten European territory," Scholz told reporters on Thursday.
There had been lengthy discussions on how to respond with conventional deterrence in addition to the NATO nuclear umbrella. The deployment of long-range weapons had already been laid down a year ago in Germany's first National Security Strategy.
"That is why the United States' decision fits in perfectly with this strategy, which we have been discussing publicly for a long time," Scholz said.
Also attending the summit is Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who hopes to meet former US president and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in Florida afterwards, according to newspaper reports.
The New York Times reported that Orbán wants to travel to Florida on Thursday, citing an anonymous source in Trump's campaign team. The Guardian, a British newspaper, reported that the meeting would take place at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in the south-eastern state, citing sources close to Orbán. These reports have not been officially confirmed.
Trump's rival, incumbent US President Joe Biden, opened the summit with a speech at the anniversary ceremony on Tuesday. With US domestic politics increasingly dominated by concerns about the 81-year-old president's mental capacity, his performance is being watched closely.
Biden was able to read his speech from a teleprompter without any major slip-ups, though he occasionally slurred his words.
On Thursday, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said he had no concerns about Biden's capabilities.
"I have absolutely no concerns about the capacity of the current president of the United States to lead his country and to lead our fight for Ukraine and to lead NATO," Stubb told reporters.
"I've had the opportunity to speak to President Biden on many occasions during the past 48 hours," Stubb said. "We human beings, when we're treated in the public eye, we're never as good as we sometimes look, and we're never as bad."
NATO being a Euro-Atlantic alliance, the four Indo-Pacific countries are not members but have been invited to discuss common security interests in the region.
Before the summit, China accused NATO of stoking tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, where the alliance has been cultivating partnerships with the four countries.
NATO, meanwhile published a declaration on Wednesday calling on China to cease "all material and political support to Russia's war effort" in Ukraine. China "cannot enable the largest war in Europe in recent history without this negatively impacting its interests and reputation," the declaration said.
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