A BIG EGOCENTRIC ISSUE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR REMAINS ON DAY 503.TURKIYE MADE MOST CRITICAL DECISION IN FAVOUR OF NATO/JOE BIDEN?

1???.Worthy audience all seems well for a two-day NATO summit that could become one of the most consequential gatherings for the alliance in modern history, coming about a month into Ukraine’s slow counteroffensive and weeks after a failed mutiny in Russia becaming a considerable threat to President Vladimir Putin’s leadership. Monday evening’s announcement which came just hours after Biden landed in the Lithuanian capital city marks a stunning about-face from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, who has blocked the accession bid for more than a year.While national security experts had warned that a failure to admit Sweden to NATO could portend cracks in the alliance. Meanwhile US President Joe Biden and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed Sweden’s membership of NATO in a phone call ahead of Tuesday’s NATO summit. The White House said Biden conveyed his desire to welcome Sweden into NATO as soon as possible. The summit also comes days after the US announced that it will be sending cluster munitions to Ukraine for the first time, a move aimed at bolstering Ukraine’s offensive capabilities that has prompted some public disagreement from allied countries, a move that Biden called a “difficult decision” in his interview with Zakaria but was necessary because Ukraine is running low on ammunition. Few key factors are as follows:-

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• President Joe Bidens three-nation tour culminated at UK visit before NATO summit.
• Biden and other members have touted unprecedented unity among the alliance in the face of Russia’s war, and the move also provides leaders a significant show of force going into the summit.
• US President Joe Biden and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed Sweden’s membership of NATO in a phone call ahead of Tuesday’s NATO summit. Consequently President Tayyip Erdogan agreed.This is a milestone achievent of Biden regime to convince Turkey to do so?
• Biden and NATO allies will “send a united, positive signal” on a path to NATO membership for Ukraine at the summit What if Ukraine is given NATO membership to fight back till the last drop of blood.
• Will the use of cluster munitions prolong war or will it reciprocate more disaster& adds fuel to already tipping Climate disaster?
• EU & NATO strongly agree that there are no optimistic scenarios for the Kremlin. The world says Ukraine war is fruitless rather counterproductive.
• In a lot of the coverage coming into the summit, the rumors of the death of NATO’s unity were greatly exaggerated. Every few months, the question is called: Can the West hang together? Can NATO hang together?
• As the day begins, Biden has participated in an official arrival ceremony and bilateral meeting with the summit’s host, Lithuania President Gitanas Nausea, where, Biden will reaffirm the US’ “ironclad support for Article Five, for reinforcing NATO’s Eastern flank.”
• We need to see the Chinese response on expansion of NATO & Turkey unusual tilt towards USA? We also have to wait and see how does Russia respond against Ukraine or will it be a chance to declare the innings on the current score and blunt Ukraine strife to become part of NATO.How Turkey will respond to mediate peace b/w Ukraine & Russia ,now?
• Let us not forget that the Ukrainian President Zelinsk would take it with a pinch of salt &he is likely to show his annoyance since he has been left behind ?

2??.Worthy Audience Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Hanna Maliar, said Ukraine was “consolidating” its gains amid heavy fighting in two areas of the country’s southeast and had registered “a certain advance” on Bakhmut’s southern flank. Russia’s defense ministry said its forces had repelled Ukrainian advances near Bakhmut, with fighting made difficult “not only by the daily intensity of fire and battle, but also by topography. The line of contact runs between two hills”Ukrainian’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy again acknowledged that the counteroffensive was moving more slowly than he or his generals wanted but that Ukrainian forces held the initiative. “All of us, we want to do it faster because every day means new losses of Ukrainians. We are advancing. We are not stuck,” he said in an interview with the United States broadcaster ABC, noting that the military had overcome a “kind of stagnation” in previous months. “We would all love to see the counteroffensive accomplished in a shorter period of time. But there is reality.The death toll from the Russian bombardment of the eastern Ukrainian city of Lyman rose to at least nine, with more than a dozen people injured. The head of the Ukrainian military administration in the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said Russian forces had attacked the city with rockets and deliberately targeted residential blocks. Russia denies that it attacks civilians.

3?.Use of Cluster bombs. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, said cluster munitions were “extremely important” for Ukraine and would help “partially restore parity on the battlefield”. Podolyak added that Russia had been using such munitions in Ukraine for more than a year.Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned the US’s decision to supply Ukraine with?cluster bombs saying it was aimed at prolonging the war. Few points to ponder are:-

• UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who has been critical of the US move to send cluster bombs to Ukraine.
• Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Berlin could not “block” the US from?providing such lethal ammunition to Ukraine, despite its opposition to their use. However, he noted that if Ukraine no longer had the means to defend itself or if those supporting the war-stricken country backed down, “it would be the end of Ukraine”.
• In the US, Democratic Senator Tim Kaine and Representative Barbara Lee raised concerns over the cluster bomb decision. Kaine said he had “some real qualms” about the move because it could inspire other countries to sidestep the international convention barring the munitions. Still, he told Fox News, he appreciated that the government had “grappled with the risks”.

3. Success of Diplomacy. US President Joe Biden and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed Sweden’s membership of NATO in a phone call ahead of Tuesday’s NATO summit. The White House said Biden conveyed his desire to welcome Sweden into NATO as soon as possible. The two men will hold talks on the sidelines of the summit that will focus on “Ukraine’s position in NATO, Sweden’s NATO membership, and the delivery of F-16” fighter jets, Turkey said. Other significant factors are:-

• Russia said it wanted NATO to discuss Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant at the summit, accusing Kyiv of causing “systematic infliction of damage” to the site. Moscow occupied the nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, shortly after it began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
• South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed that next month’s BRICS summit, to which Russian President Vladimir Putin has been invited, will be “physical” despite an?warrant for arrest ?for Putin issued by the International Criminal Court.
• Ukrainian football club Dynamo Kyiv accused Turkish side Fenerbahce of being a club “without honour and conscience” after the team travelled to Russia to play in a pre-season tournament. Russian teams were?barred from participation in FIFA and UEFA competitions after the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

5. Conclusion. Every time NATO allies gather, that question gets re-upped, and every time the allies come together and answer it forcefully and vehemently: ‘Yes we can.”Vladimir Putin has been counting on the West to crack, NATO to crack, the Transatlantic Alliance to crack.He has been very disappointed at every turn .The Swedes will not join the alliance right away?it will take a parliamentary procedure in Turkey to formally approve their membership and Hungary must also drop their objections, which it is expected to do now that Erdo?an is on board.The meeting will mark yet another sign of unity as Zelensky’s attendance at the summit had been in question. Russia’s war in Ukraine is among the top agenda items for NATO leaders along with discussing a future pathway for the?Ukraine & that has prompted some division among NATO leadership since lot of issues remain unsettled or the Nations are indecisive/perplexed over the use of cluster bombs on one side and a tactical nuclear device on the other side ?Pakistan should keep a balanced approach to remain Impartial as well as seen standing with Ukraine, Russia, China & USA concurrently &keep our vital long term National interest in mind.That is what is called playing goody good, we have to keep supporting mediation policy alongside Turkiye & copy India who is with USA,Ukraine &Russia too? Here we have to keep in mind Sweden official response on?burning of Holy Quran last week?

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