A meeting of the North Atlantic Council is underway in Madrid. The world leaders have already been addressed by the Secretary General of the Alliance and the Prime Minister of the host country. Earlier, a meeting was held between Jens Stoltenberg and the President of US Joe Biden.

“Thank you for your personal leadership and the US commitment to NATO, to European security, demonstrated by the announcements you’ve just made to further increase US presence in Europe.

And this really demonstrates your decisive leadership in strengthening the transatlantic bond. And we also see that in the unwavering support from you and from the United States to Ukraine. That will be a main issue at the Summit today. We"ll meet with President Zelensky, he will address the Summit.

And as you said, this will be an historic Summit. It will be a transformative Summit, where we"ll make decisions that will actually change this Alliance for many years to come. We will agree a new Strategic Concept, the blueprint for NATO into the future, more dangerous world, a more competitive world.

We will agree the biggest overhaul of our collective defence and deterrence since the end of the Cold War. And US is of course very much part of that. And then, we will invite Finland and Sweden to join NATO. And that demonstrates that NATO’s door is open. It demonstrates that President Putin has not succeeded in closing NATO’s door.

He’s getting the opposite of what he wants. He wants less NATO. President Putin is getting more NATO while Finland Sweden are joining our Alliance. We will agree a Comprehensive Assistance Package for Ukraine”, - said Jens Stoltenberg.