The first day of the two-day Nato Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, was dominated by speeches welcoming the alliance's newest member, Finland, and promises to bring Sweden's Nato membership to fruition as soon as possible.
Member states also pledged to continue supporting Ukraine in its defence against Russia's ongoing invasion, but the path to membership remains unclear for the war-torn country.
"Welcome, Sauli!"
In his opening address, recently re-elected Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, as the representative of the alliance's newest member.
"I welcome President Niinistö, who has been present at many previous meetings," he said. "But this is the first summit where you are participating as a full member of the alliance. Welcome, Sauli!"
On Twitter the president said he was proud to lead Finland's delegation at the summit as an ally for the first time. "This is an important moment for Finland and Nato," Niinistö tweeted.
Alongside the president, the Finnish delegation in Vilnius included foreign minister Elina Valtonen and defence minister Antti Häkkänen, both from the National Coalition Party.
Sweden's accession got closer
In his speech, Stoltenberg also addressed Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson from Sweden, a country which is still waiting for its Nato membership application to be approved by all members.
"We look forward to soon welcoming Sweden as a full member of the alliance, so welcome to you as well," Stoltenberg addressed Kristersson.
Only two countries, Turkey and Hungary, have yet to ratify Sweden's Nato membership.
However, Sweden's bid took a significant step forward on Monday night when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged to support Sweden's membership. Around the same time, the United States announced its readiness to advance F-16 fighter jet deals with Ankara.
On Tuesday, Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó suggested that ratifying Sweden's membership is a mere formality from his country's perspective.
US President Joe Biden, who arrived at the summit from London on Tuesday afternoon, described Finland's and Sweden's accession to Nato as "significant".
Niinistö said that Sweden's forthcoming Nato membership is good news for Finland.
Ukraine's path to Nato membership still uncertain
Before the summit began, the biggest question for many was how explicitly Nato would commit to accepting Ukraine as a member of the military alliance in the future.
On Tuesday, a joint statement was signed on the matter, but it did little to define Ukraine's path to the security alliance.
Stoltenberg said that Ukraine's path to Nato membership would be streamlined by abandoning the Membership Action Plan (MAP), which would have assessed the country's qualifications for membership.
Iro Särkkä, a researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, criticised the removal of MAP, the so-called 'Nato training programme' for Ukraine. Särkkä noted that the training programme would have provided a concrete structure for monitoring Ukraine's progress toward Nato membership. She made the comments during an interview on Yle TV1's breakfast show on Wednesday.
Defence budgets see largest increase in decades
At a press conference on Tuesday evening, Stoltenberg said that Nato countries need to invest more in collective defence and commit to the alliance's target for defence budget sizes.
Member states have pledged "sustained commitment" to increase their defence budgets to the target level set by Nato. The target for defence spending is set to two percent of a country's gross domestic product (GDP). Stoltenberg said more than one-third of member nations meet or exceed the target amounts.
According to Nato, defence expenditures by European member countries and Canada will increase by 8.3 percent this year.
"This is the largest increase in decades," Stoltenberg said.
Finland's defence spending was slightly below two percent of its GDP in 2022. The spending was set to be boosted by some 1.5 billion euros between 2023 and 2026 by the Marin government.
