The next NATO leaders’ summit in 2023, to be hosted by Lithuania, will take place on July 11-12, allied Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed in a statement Wednesday.
After the one held in Spain this June that served to adopt a new strategic concept and open the door to Sweden and Finland, Vilnius will host the meeting of NATO heads of state and government at a key moment for the alliance, when the war in Ukraine is expected to continue. «We are facing the most complex and unpredictable security environment since the Cold War,» he has warned.
Thus, Stoltenberg advanced that the meeting in Vilnius will be an opportunity for the allied heads of state and government to agree on «further steps to strengthen our deterrence and defense and to review significant increases in defense spending,» in addition to giving signs of support for Ukraine. Stoltenberg’s successor should be known at this summit, after his term as secretary-general was extended for another year due to the circumstances of the war.
The former Norwegian prime minister has insisted that the meeting will serve to strengthen ties and security between Europe and North America, at a time of «growing strategic competition», in a reference not only to Russia, but also to China.
This is the first time that Lithuania is hosting a NATO summit, an organization it joined in 2004 along with Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. It will be the second summit in a Baltic country, after the summit held in Riga in 2006.
