US President Barack Obama (L) and Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves (R) attend the welcoming ceremony in Tallinn, Estonia, 03 September 2014. Obama arrived in Estonia 03 September to meet with the heads of the Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - amid growing concerns about Russia's military involvement in Ukraine: photo - EPA/VALDA KALNINA
Leaders including Barack Obama and Chancellor Merkel will be attending the two-day summit, starting Thursday, to discuss the deteriorating situation in Iraq and the Israel - Palestine conflict, but it will be dominated by the Ukraine crisis and relations with Russia.
“The NATO summit must lead to the strengthening of the eastern flank of the alliance,” President Bronislaw Komorowski said before setting off for the meeting at the Celtic Manor, around 10 kilometres north of the Welsh capital Cardiff.
“In my view, this is the most important summit since the collapse of the Warsaw Pact,” Komorowski added.
Ukraine president Petro Poroshenko will be in Wales, where he will update leaders on his inconclusive talks this week with President Putin, though NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Wednesday he thinks Russian talk of a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, where around 2,600 have died in fighting since April, is “insincere”.
"I think the bottom line is that the Russians are not sincerely interested in a ceasefire. They continue to destabilise Eastern Ukraine," the NATO chief said.
“Ukraine needs more than words,” Barack Obama said in Estonia on Wednesday. “NATO needs to make concrete commitments to help Ukraine modernize and strengthen its security forces.”
Poland has been pushing for a permanent NATO troop presence on its territory since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine.
Last week, Polish defence minister Tomasz Siemoniak said, however, that “I do not think summit documents use the term "permanent military presence.”
Many NATO members, however, fear that a permanent NATO base in Poland could provoke Russia.
“Some allies see the word “permanent” as a liability,” Minister Siemoniak said. (pg)