defending mr. biden s controversial decision to send cluster munitions to ukraine. the hard but necessary choice amounted to this. if we didn t do it, if we don t do it, then they will run out of ammunition. if they run outof ammunition, they will be defenseless. every ally said they understand why we re doing this, when we re doing it. my conversation this morning with nato s secretary-general, one day after he successfully worked with turkey and sweden s leader to alleviate concerns and pave the way for sweden to join nato. sweden will become a member of the alliance. that s good for sweden. it s good for turkey. it s good for whole of nato. with both in the alliance, the whole task of protecting the baltic area becomes so much easier for this alliance. this is important for the whole nato, but in particular this region. good day. i m andrea mitchell in lithuania. we begin with the scene moments ago. president zelenskyy at a concert here at nato just hours after he
that wraps it up for me. right now on andrea mitchell reports, president biden boosted by the fed forecasting rate cuts in the year ahead and the chance of curbing inflation without riing rates. vladimir putin closing the year at his marathon press conference, showing no sign of abandoning his invasion of ukraine, counting on international funding for kyiv drying up. translator: coming back to the goals, they remain unchanged. today ukraine virtually produces or manufactures nothing. they have been importing things for free freeloading. it will come to an end, sooner or later. national security advisor jake sullivan in israel today, meeting with prime minister benjamin netanyahu and his war cabinet as the white house presses them to open a second gate for desperately needed aid into gaza. republicans backing the investigation of the president and his family s business dealings. republicans targeting hunter biden, who said he would testify in public but ignore