unmistakable. the president opening this speech talking about the independence of lithuania and the rest of the baltic states, throwing off the yolk of the soviet union saying the u.s. never supported attacking the baltic states. he did speak about the lithuanians saying they are a proud member of the e.u. and nato. but more than that, they were thinking, we would like to be members of the european union and nato. there was one slip that i thought was rather interesting. he talked about the 33 free-standing members. ukrainians would like that to be the case. currently as you said, there are 31, soon to be 32 with sweden. ukraine certainly disappointed that at the end of the vilnius summit, that there was no more concrete timetable for ukraine to join the nato alliance. they certainly did receive very strong and robust assurances
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munitions to be sent to ukraine. cluster munitions are something that have been opposed by more than 100 countries, but the president said it was a very difficult decision, but one which was necessary at this time, as ukraine needs more ammunition as they wage that counteroffensive against russia. another issue that will be a hot topic, and potential flashpoint at this summit, is the prospect of determining a pathway for ukraine to join the nato alliance. there are some allies who want to see a more concrete timetable for that to happen. president biden has said that now is not the time for ukraine to join, due to the ongoing war in ukraine, and his belief that there are still some reforms and commitments that ukraine needs to make in order to join the nato alliance. another issue of a country who is trying to get into nato, is sweden. their bid to join the alliance has currently been on hold, due to opposition by turkish president erdogan.
the states and other allies would have to go and fight the war in ukraine. the u.s. and other allies are still not on the same page about what this is actually going to look like in terms of timing. a concrete timetable for ukraine s potential membership here. there are also questions looming about the u.s. and nato support for ukraine practically, the kinds of weapons that they will continue to provide and how long they can continue to produce the level of weaponry including ammunition that we have seen them provide over the last year. of course, now the u.s. says is that it s running low on ammunition. these practical things will be at play and then of course another major topic will be sweden s accession to nato. turkey has been blocking that, were hoping this would be resolved by tomorrow. it doesn t look like that is going to happen. there will be a one-on-one meeting between precip erdogan and president biden. thanks so much. it was a year ago that nato
charles and really, the hallmark moment of this week-long trip to europe will be that nato summit in lithuania. president biden is heading into that summit hoping to once again shore up support and assistance for ukraine as it faces this long slog of a war against russia. now the president recently approved sending over cluster munitions to ukraine. a controversial piece of ammunition that many countries have been firmly opposed to, but the president said was necessary given the current counteroffensive that ukraine is encountering with russia, but also at the top of the agenda at this nato summit will be the discussion of a possible pathway forward for ukraine to join the nato alliance at some point down the road. there are some allies who want to see a more concrete timetable for when that joining of ukraine to nato might happen. president biden said in an interview with our colleague fareed zakaria that right now is