Jens Stoltenberg is a Norwegian politician who has been serving as the 13th secretary general of NATO since 2014. A member of the Norwegian Labour Party, he previously served as the 34th prime minister of Norway from 2000 to 2001, and again from 2005 until 2013.
Relations between Ukraine and the United Kingdom have existed in one form or another since Ukrainian independence in 1991. The two countries have ties across political, military, social and economic spheres. The UK hosts up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees giving it the 8th largest Ukrainian migrant population in Europe.
Relations between Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) started in 1991. Ukraine applied to integrate with a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) in 2008. Plans for NATO membership were shelved by Ukraine following the 2010 presidential election in which Viktor Yanukovych, who preferred to keep the country non-aligned, was elected President. Amid the unrest caused by the Euromaidan protests, Yanukovych fled Ukraine in February 2014. The interim Yatseniuk Government which came to power initially said, with reference to the country's non-aligned status, that it had no plans to join NATO. However, following the Russian military invasion in Ukraine and parliamentary elections in October 2014, the new government made joining NATO a priority. On 21 February 2019, the Constitution of Ukraine was amended, the norms on the strategic course of Ukraine for membership in the European Union and NATO are enshrined in the preamble of the Basic Law, three articles and transitional provisions.
Relations between the NATO military alliance and the Russian Federation were established in 1991 within the framework of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. In 1994, Russia joined the Partnership for Peace program, and on 27 May 1997, the NATO–Russia Founding Act (NRFA) was signed at a NATO Summit in Paris, France, enabling the creation of the NATO–Russia Permanent Joint Council (NRPJC). Through the early part of 2010s NATO and Russia signed several additional agreements on cooperation. The NRPJC was replaced in 2002 by the NATO–Russia Council (NRC) established for handling security issues and joint projects.
Independence Day of Ukraine is the main state holiday in modern Ukraine, celebrated on 24 August in commemoration of the Declaration of Independence of 1991.
The 2018 Brussels Summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was the 29th formal meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, held in Brussels, Belgium, on 11 and 12 July 2018.
Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy is a Ukrainian politician and former comedian and actor who has served as the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019.
The 47th G7 summit was held from 11 to 13 June 2021 in Cornwall, England, during the United Kingdom's tenure of the presidency of the Group of Seven (G7), an inter-governmental political forum of seven advanced nations.
The 2022 G20 Bali summit was the seventeenth meeting of Group of Twenty (G20), which was held in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia on 15–16 November 2022. Indonesia's presidency began on 1 December 2021, leading up to the summit in the fourth quarter of 2022. The presidency handover ceremony was held as an intimate event, in which the G20 presidency gavel was transferred from Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi to Indonesian president Joko Widodo at the close of the Rome summit.
The 2021 Brussels summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was the 31st formal meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, held in Brussels, Belgium, on 14 June 2021.
The Bucharest Nine or the Bucharest Format is an organization founded on 4 November 2015 in Bucharest, Romania, at the initiative of the President of Romania Klaus Iohannis and the President of Poland Andrzej Duda during a bilateral meeting between them. Its members are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Its appearance was mainly a result of a perceived aggressive attitude from Russia following the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its posterior intervention in eastern Ukraine both in 2014. All members of the B9 were either part of the former Soviet Union (USSR) or members of the defunct Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.
The 2021 Russia–United States summit was a summit meeting between United States President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin on 16 June 2021, in Geneva, Switzerland.
The 48th G7 summit was held from 26 to 28 June 2022 in Schloss Elmau, Krün, Bavarian Alps, Germany. Germany previously hosted a G7 summit in 2015 at Schloss Elmau.
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on 24 February 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made a number of speeches in multiple formats, including on social media and to foreign legislatures. The speeches have received significant attention, with a number of commentators citing a positive effect on Ukrainian morale and on international support for Ukrainian resistance to the invasion.
The 2022 Madrid summit was a meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of NATO member and partner countries held in Madrid, Spain, on 28–30 June 2022. Spain previously hosted a NATO Summit in 1997.
The 2022 NATO virtual summit was a meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of NATO held virtually, on 25 February 2022. The meeting took place at the request of the Latvian and Estonian governments, following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, which had begun a day earlier. The request was pursuant to Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which requires consultations when "the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened."
In the context of the enlargement of NATO, Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty is the origin for the April 1999 statement of a "NATO open door policy".
On 15 November 2022, a missile struck the territory of Poland at the village of Przewodów near the border with Ukraine. The incident occurred during an attack on Ukrainian cities and energy facilities by Russia. It was the first incident of a missile landing and exploding within NATO territory during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Initial assessments by the United States found that the missile was likely to have been an air defence missile fired by Ukrainian forces at an incoming Russian missile.
