NATO seeks agreement on Ukraine bid after Turkey deal on Sweden
NATO leaders gather for a summit in Lithuania on Tuesday seeking to overcome divisions on Ukraine's membership bid after a deal to lift Turkey's block on Sweden joining the military alliance.
The summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius will be dominated by the repercussions of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with leaders set to approve NATO's first comprehensive plans since the end of the Cold War to defend against any attack from Moscow.
Diplomats said differences were narrowing over Ukraine's push for NATO membership. While NATO members agree Ukraine cannot join during the war, they have disagreed over how quickly it could happen afterwards and under what conditions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has been invited to attend the Vilnius gathering, has been pressing NATO to give his country a clear pathway to membership in the summit communique so that it can join soon after the war is over.
NATO was formed in 1949 with the primary aim of countering the risk of a Soviet attack on allied territory.
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