The leaders of NATO countries are currently meeting in Washington, the capital of the United States. Your host is Joe Biden. All eyes are on him. After a short run to get to his position, Biden took the official photo with the allied presidents and prime ministers. They discussed the main foreign policy issues, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and also the relationship with China.

The inaugural address was, of course, given by Biden himself. As he turned the page, he made a slight lapse and lost the thread. He quickly picked up again. He stressed that Russia is increasing its weapons production.. He asks all members of the alliance not to be left behind.

“They have significantly increased the production of weapons, ammunition and vehicles and they do so with the help of China, North Korea and Iran. We cannot allow the alliance to be left behind”Joe Biden has said.

Biden has noted that while two years ago, at the very beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, a plan was launched at the Madrid summit to modernize defense systems and deterrence against possible attacks, the next step now is to strengthen the arms industry due to the push from Russia.

The US president has thanked all NATO partners have committed to increasing their defense spendingthe number of allies that allocate at least 2 percent of their GDP, as well as their industrial capacities to face these new challenges, has already increased from 9 to 20 percent.

Biden has stressed that “for the first time,” all NATO countries have committed to developing and expanding their defense capabilities, which, as an Alliance, it has celebrated, will allow them to be “more innovative and competitive”, as well as capable of producing more critical defense equipment more quickly.