EXPLAINER: NATO holds summit with gaze on Russia — and China

By JOSEPH WILSON and JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

MADRID (AP) — The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is meeting in Madrid this week with an urgent need to reassert its original mission: preventing Russian aggression against Western democracies. U.S. President Joe Biden and other leaders of the world’s most powerful military alliance want to show strength and unity in supporting Ukraine’s resistance to the grinding assault by the forces of Russian President Vladimir Putin. NATO’s 30 members are expected to increase support for Ukraine, boost their forces on the alliance’s eastern flank and set priorities for the coming decade — with a new emphasis on checking China’s growing international military ambitions. But there are also divisions, with Turkey blocking a bid by Finland and Sweden to join the alliance.