(FROM LEFT) POLISH PRESIDENT Andrzej Duda, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, U.S. President Barack Obama, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani (second row, from left) German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko and British Prime Minister David Cameron pose with other leaders for a group portrait at the the NATO summit in Warsaw on July 8.

THE NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANISATION (NATO) summit held in Warsaw, Poland, on July 8-9, has been billed as the most important one since the end of the Cold War. Held in the wake of the Brexit vote in Britain and the threat it poses to the concept of European unity, the summit’s goal was to project unity. Britain has been the United States’ foremost ally within the European Union (E.U.) and NATO. With the exit of Britain from the E.U., the Union is theoretically better positioned to follow a more independent foreign policy. The outgoing British Prime Minster, David Cameron, was in Warsaw to pledge his country’s unflinching support to the military alliance, in particular, and to the concept of European unity. But the summit’s main purpose was to send a political and military message to Russia. By massively expanding its military presence all along Russia’s borders in eastern Europe, NATO has signalled that it is prepared for the eventuality of a military confrontation.

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