Ukraine-Russia War, Biden and Summit News: Live Updates

NATO: On Thursday morning, Mr. Biden was joining the leaders of the 30 countries that make up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a group formed after World War II to advance our common defense. On the agenda: whether to provide more powerful weapons to Ukraine, how to strengthen them, and how to strengthen NATO’s defenses in Poland and along the eastern front with Russia.

Biden and the others had to discuss bleak scenarios for a possible further expansion of Russian attacks into NATO countries, and how the alliance would respond.

G7: After the NATO meeting, Mr. Biden will join the leaders of the Group of Seven, the world’s largest and wealthy democracies, to continue the discussion on Ukraine. The meeting, which includes the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, was called by German Chancellor Olaf Schulz, the current G7 president.

The group is expected to address the refugee crisis sparked by the flight of millions of Ukrainians from Russian forces, and discuss what more the world can do to punish President Vladimir Putin for his aggression.

European Council: Then Mr. Biden will cross Brussels to join the leaders of the 27 member states of the European Union. The summit, known as the European Council, was the regular, long-planned meeting of EU leaders that takes place every three months, but Biden was invited in light of close coordination between the bloc and the United States on sanctions and all other actions responsive to Russia. Invasion of Ukraine.

The group will likely focus on expanding sanctions as well as Mr. Shultz’ push to strengthen enforcement measures to ensure Russia cannot evade the pain of sanctions. European Union leaders will continue to meet on Friday, after Mr Biden departs for Poland.

Overlapping Memberships: Both NATO and the European Union are based in Brussels and have their origins in the years after World War II, but the differences between them are significant. NATO was built as a military bulwark against Soviet power, while the European Union is a political and economic bloc that arose out of efforts to unite the former warring nations of Western Europe through trade.

Twenty-one countries now belong to both, including a patch that once fell under the Soviet sphere of influence. But the EU’s 27 members include many countries that have remained outside NATO, often due to traditions of neutrality, such as Austria, Ireland and Sweden. The 30th NATO membership includes the United States, its dominant military partner, and Canada, along with several countries that have either left or refused to join the European Union (Britain, Iceland, Norway) or have applied to join (Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Turkey).

Meanwhile, the Group of Seven was formed during the economic turmoil of the 1970s to facilitate discussions among the leaders of the western world’s most powerful economies; It now includes leaders of the European Union, along with leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.