On Thursday, NATO will celebrate 75 years of existence. In the meanwhile, the Western alliance must act quickly to support Ukraine in winning the conflict that is presently engulfing Europe.
The organization that prides itself on being the “most powerful and successful alliance in history” will be honored with a ceremony at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels attended by foreign ministers from all 32 of its member states.
Amid the speeches and cake-cutting, NATO is facing one of its worst problems since it was formed in 1949 to oppose the Soviet Union after the Second World War.
“As we celebrate NATO’s achievements, we do not rest upon them,” alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.
“Europe now faces war on a scale we thought was resigned to history.”
A revitalized NATO has strengthened its forces in eastern Europe and welcomed Finland and Sweden into its ranks since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago.
Members of the alliance have also supported Kyiv in its desire to join NATO by supplying the country with armaments valued at tens of billions of dollars.
However, those shipments have since decreased as a result of the United States’ continued political impasse with the most powerful nation in NATO. Ukraine’s outmatched forces have been forced to retreat from the front lines.
Kyiv is begging its Western allies to send all the spare Patriot defense systems they have because Russian missile strikes on its infrastructure are on the rise.
Stoltenberg, meanwhile, has proposed a 100-billion-euro ($108-billion) five-year fund in a bid to ensure long-term support for Ukraine.
He is also pushing to get NATO as an organisation more directly involved in coordinating deliveries, something the alliance has so far refused to do out of concern it could drag it closer to war with Russia.
