On Monday, 30 leaders and heads of state will hold the NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, where the security alliance was headquartered in 1949.

At Joe Biden’s first NATO summit as president of the United States, he will eagerly assure his allies that “the United States is back”. Previously, former US President Donald Trump declared NATO “outdated” and called member states “deadbeats”. After four turbulent years, it initially refused to explicitly support NATO’s principle of mutual defense.

It is expected that a new “2030 Strategic Concept” will be launched, outlining how the alliance plans to deal with the various challenges it faces now.

James Goldger, a professor of international relations at American University and former director of Russia, said that NATO’s current strategic vision can be traced back to 2010, but “not enough attention has been paid to the prospect of Russian aggression, and China is hardly mentioned.” Staff of the National Security Council of Ukraine and Eurasian Affairs.

French President Emmanuel Macron (Emmanuel Macron) raised the need to reflect the ever-changing security situation. In 2019, he criticized the alliance for being “brain-disabled” and no longer suitable for its purpose.

Experts said that NATO Chairman Jens Stoltenberg will propose to expand attention to issues such as cyber warfare, China, Russia, strategic competition with authoritarian countries, and the impact of climate change on international security.

Here are five things to know:

Afghanistan

One of the most pressing themes on the agenda is how NATO will ensure stability in Afghanistan as it gradually ends its operations in the region.

The US military and its NATO allies will withdraw their 9,600-man mission before Biden’s September 11 deadline-after nearly 20 years of conflict in the region.

Critics, including former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, warned that the Taliban might regain control.

According to the UN Security Council, the Al-Qaida network-which provided the reason for the US invasion of Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks-still has 400 to 600 members fighting the Taliban.

In an interview with CNN in April, Al-Qaeda agents stated that “unless war is waged against the United States on all other fronts.”

NATO plans to provide continuous financial support to the Afghan security forces. However, the question remains whether the allies will promise to provide millions or even billions of dollars in funding to provide Afghanistan with equipment and serious training programs.

US military officials are also discussing establishing bases in neighboring countries so that they can return to Afghanistan if Al Qaeda or ISIL threatens.

The United States wants to do business in Pakistan, but given the often tense relations between Islamabad and Washington, this is unlikely under Biden’s leadership.

He added that the Pentagon also agreed to return to bases in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, a move that requires the support of China and Russia.

“This will be much more difficult than it was 10 years ago,” he said, because the relationship between the United States and these two powers has deteriorated.

Russia

Kristine Berzina, a senior researcher at the German Marshall Foundation in the United States, said that leaders will also discuss strengthening NATO’s collective defenses, with a focus on “a more aggressive Russia.”

Last year, it was reported that Russia sent 150,000 soldiers to its border with Ukraine. This was the “largest Russian army buildup” since Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014. This prompted NATO to warn Russia to update “ “Aggression” will have consequences.

In August last year, the Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny was nearly fatally poisoned, and the rift between the Western government and Russia intensified, and many people blamed it on Moscow—but Russia denies this. statement.

Jamie Shea, a senior researcher at Think, based in Brussels, said that at the summit, the United States may be asked to prepare to send more troops and tanks to Europe, deploy more equipment in Europe, and deploy more on the European continent. Multiple air defense systems. -tank Friends of Europe and former NATO staff.

“Romania, Bulgaria and other countries definitely want to see the United States strengthen its defenses in the region.”

China

In a recent speech, Stoltenberg pointed out that NATO does not consider Beijing to be an adversary, but the rise of China has a direct impact on the security of the transatlantic alliance.

“China itself is not seen as a threat, but as something that may turn hostile,” Belzina said.

NATO allies condemned China’s human rights violations, including the suppression of dissidents in Hong Kong and the detention of more than 1 million Uyghurs, who are mainly Muslims in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

Other concerns of NATO include China’s threat to invade Taiwan, Beijing’s increasing militarization, and US Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. Kathleen Hicks calling it an increasingly “coercive and aggressive” approach to the Indo-Pacific region.

Belzina said that under Trump’s leadership, “Europe has some hopes to maintain an equal distance between the two powers, rather than getting involved in the conflict with the United States, especially when relations with the United States are so bad.”

Although Belzina said that Europe has “delayed” more on the China issue than the United States hoped, Shay expects there will be more agreement on the Beijing issue.

“Europe is aware of China’s challenges,” he said.

In March of this year, the European Union imposed sanctions on Chinese officials for the first time in 30 years on the Uyghur issue.

Rafael Loss, coordinator of the European Council’s pan-European data project, said that France, Germany and the United Kingdom have recently sent warships to the Indo-Pacific region, which shows that Europe “has an interest in a free and open Indo-Pacific region.” Diplomatic relations.

“NATO may seek closer cooperation with partners such as Australia, India, Japan, and South Korea. It should also seriously consider how to contribute to the protection of democracy in Taiwan,” said Lowes.

Defense expenditure

NATO member states will decide whether to increase the organization’s common budget to obtain more joint capabilities, such as training, exercises, and stronger cyber defenses.

Stoltenberg called on allies to “invest more” and “better”, and proposed that they jointly contribute $20 billion to the common budget in the next 10 years.

Currently, the common pot accounts for 0.3% of the total defense spending of the Allies, or about $2.5 billion.

French officials have expressed opposition to the proposal to cancel the joint funding.

French Defense Minister Florence Pali told Politico this month: “All of this money will not be used to increase the national budget and benefit NATO’s European defense efforts. And what to do? No one can tell you.”

Berzina expects that spending will become a concern for some NATO member states: “There will always be leaders and laggards in spending. There will be compromises, but I think it will be challenging, especially in the economic landscape of COVID-19. “

Then, the EU summit

One day later, on Tuesday, Biden and EU senior figures will hold a summit in Brussels.

Experts said that tariffs and trade related to aircraft and metals are a key theme and how to implement the new global minimum corporate tax rate in accordance with the historic agreement reached by the G7 finance ministers on June 5.

Other issues will include data transmission, pandemic recovery, climate policy and carbon pricing plans.

Although Europe is eager to welcome Biden into the region, the previous administration has shown that Washington’s priorities can change quickly.

Goldgeier said that European leaders are not yet sure how Biden’s “middle class foreign policy” strategy differs from Trump’s “America First” agenda.

“This will be a key issue for Europe.”