The main focus of this year’s NATO summit will be to come to a concrete conclusion around Ukraine’s membership bid after a deal to lift Turkey’s block on Sweden joining the military alliance.

All the NATO leaders gather for the summit in Vilnius on Tuesday, to discuss different points around the security of NATO members. There are also talks of NATO leaders approving the group’s first comprehensive plans since the end of the Cold War to defend against any attack from Moscow.

Over time, NATO leaders have brought consensus on the fact that Ukraine cannot join the group during the war, but there are still some differences of opinion among members. Leaders of member countries have a different stance on how quickly Kyiv can join the group and under what conditions.

‘We already understand that Ukraine will be in the Alliance,’ Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also been invited at the VIlnius gathering of NATO members. He has been stressing on the membership from a very long time so that Ukraine can join the Alliance soon after the war is over.

“We are still working on the wording … but we already understand the fact that Ukraine will be in the Alliance,” Zelenskiy said on Twitter on Monday evening.

He also said that Ukraine was working to streamline the process of joining NATO more clear to make it as fast as possible. Ukraine’s efforts are equally reciprocated by NATO members who collectively believe that adding Ukraine under NATO’s umbrella is the only way to deter Russia from attacking again.

Turkey agrees to support Sweden’s bid to join NATO

Soon after Russian invasion to Ukraine, Nordic neighbours Finland and Sweden abandoned their decades of military non-alignment and applied to join NATO.

After Finland’s successful inclusion, Sweden’s accession was held by a dispute with Turkey. However, Turkey president Tayyip Erdogan agreed to send Sweden’s application to the Turkish parliament for ratification. Stoltenberg hailed the move as “historic”.

Turkey and Sweden witnessed sour relation because of later’s inaction on terrorists. Turkey had accused Sweden of not taking enough actions to curb the activities of groups and people identified as terrorists by Ankara. Main issue is with Sweden’s inaction against the members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the EU and the United States.

On Monday, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Erdogan agreed to further steps on Monday evening, including establishing a new “Security Compact” on fighting terrorism.

The two also agreed to step up economic cooperation and Sweden committed to support efforts to revive the moribund process of moving Turkey closer to the European Union.

Ukraine can join NATO without MAP

Given the condition of Ukraine and its relation with Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg on Monday said he proposed Ukraine could skip a Membership Action Plan (MAP). It is a process for meeting political, economic and military goals.

“I am absolutely certain that we will have unity and a strong message on Ukraine,” Stoltenberg told reporters.

NATO came into existence in 1949. Its main aim was to counter the risk of a Soviet attack on allied territory. Throughout the course of NATO, member countries like the USA and Germany have been careful to not initiate any move that can bring NATO and Russia into loggerheads and spark a global war.

Looking at the current scenario, NATO members have asserted that “Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO” and that it will join “when conditions allow”. As of now, NATO leaders are discussing on what conditions Ukraine would have to meet to join NATO and how its progress should be tracked, reported Reuters.

NATO summit a ‘colourful spectacle in the worst traditions of western manipulation’, says Moscow

As NATO members are discussing the Ukraine’s membership, Moscow has criticised the two-day summit in advance. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova predicted that NATO summit would be “a colourful spectacle in the worst traditions of Western manipulation,” reported Reuters citing inputs from RIA news agency.

(With inputs from Reuters)