Zelensky and NATO Make Nice to End Vilnius Summit

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at new G-7 security guarantees for Ukraine, an electoral challenge in Thailand, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s visit to the Jenin refugee camp.

NATO’s two-day summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, culminated on Wednesday with a public reconciliation of sorts between U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. As yesterday’s World Brief detailed, the Ukrainian leader came away from the first day of summit talks deeply disappointed by the bloc’s refusal to set a clear timeline for Ukraine’s future membership in the alliance, which he blasted as “unprecedented and absurd.”

But Wednesday saw a noticeable tone shift from Zelensky after he met one-on-one with Biden and received new security guarantees from the G-7, which issued a joint declaration pledging “to provide Ukraine with swift and sustained security assistance, modern military equipment across land, sea and air domains, and economic assistance,” among other commitments. The newly created NATO-Ukraine Council also met for the first time on Wednesday, with the goal of tightening cooperation between the two parties.

“The Ukrainian delegation is bringing home a significant security victory for the Ukraine, for our country, for our people, for our children,” Zelensky said during an event with Biden and other G-7 leaders. “It opens for us absolutely new security opportunities, and I thank everyone who made it possible.” In a joint press conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Zelensky summed up his view of the last two days: “We can state that the results of the summit are good, but if there had been an invitation [to join NATO], they would have been perfect.”

But for Ukrainians, 89 percent of whom support joining the alliance, not everyone seems ready to publicly toe the more conciliatory line. “What should I tell my son?” Ukrainian activist Daria Kaleniuk asked U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan during a public forum on the summit’s sidelines. “That President Biden and NATO didn’t invite Ukraine to NATO because he’s afraid of Russia, afraid of Russia losing, afraid of Ukraine winning?”

Despite public condemnation of NATO’s decision, the biggest winner of the summit appeared to be the United States for Biden’s ability to sway the rest of the alliance into postponing Ukrainian membership. “It turned a minority position into a majority position in NATO,” said Jamie Shea, a former NATO deputy assistant secretary-general for emerging security challenges. “I think the allies will sort of feel that they’ve managed to preserve the unity on Ukraine, give Ukraine a significant upgrade in the relationship, and move the cursor forward.”

• The Long, Destructive Shadow of Obama’s Russia Doctrine by Adrian Karatnycky
• Russia’s War Comes for Academia by Clara Gutman-Argemí
• Ukraine Could Be the Next West Germany by Anchal Vohra

Thailand’s ballot fight. In an eleventh-hour attempt to uphold the status quo, Thailand’s Election Commission asked the nation’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday to disqualify Pita Limjaroenrat from running for prime minister, a day before the country’s parliament is set to vote on who will take the top spot. The 42-year-old businessman, whom FP’s Jack Detsch and Ashley Ahn recently profiled, remains the front-runner for office as head of the progressive Move Forward Party, which is on track to form a coalition with seven other parties.

According to the Election Commission, Pita’s ownership of shares in a media firm, which is against the law for parliamentarians, should bar him from office. However, Pita has said the issue is a non-starter because he transferred his shares and the company is not an active media organization. If found guilty, Pita may not just be barred from Thursday’s vote but could also be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and banned from politics for up to 20 years.

Abbas visits Jenin. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas traveled to a cemetery on the edge of the Jenin refugee camp on Wednesday—the same place where just days earlier three of his senior officials were forced to flee from crowds of Palestinians angry at his government’s response to Israel’s recent military raid. Flanked by his presidential guards, Abbas addressed the gathered crowd about the operation, in which Israeli forces killed at least 12 Palestinians during a two-day offensive to crack down on militants operating in the area. “The heroic Jenin camp stood against the aggression, sacrificed its casualties, and offered all it has for the sake of the homeland,” Abbas said.

The trip was a surprising move for the 87-year-old leader, who is often viewed as out of touch with his constituents and is rarely seen outside of his Ramallah headquarters.

In the past, policymakers have strengthened the Palestinian Authority’s capacity to combat large-scale Israeli military interventions, Middle East experts Zaha Hassan and Daniel Levy argued in Foreign Policy following the Jenin assault. However, that strategy fails to work because it does not address one key issue: “that the PA is weak by design.”

Pyongyang’s historic ICBM test. North Korea on Wednesday fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that flew more than 620 miles in 74 minutes, marking the country’s longest-ever missile flight. South Korea, Japan, and the United States all condemned Pyongyang’s actions, with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol convening an emergency national security meeting while attending the NATO summit in Vilnius. The missile test appears to be in response to allegations that U.S. spy planes violated North Korea’s airspace in its exclusive economic zone, which Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s sister, called an “illegal intrusion.”

Imagine this: You’re sitting under sweltering, 80-plus-degree heat, when you bite into a milk tea-flavored ice cream popsicle carved to look like an ancient ceramic tile. At Thailand’s Temple of Dawn, that’s exactly how visitors are fighting Bangkok’s humidity. All popsicle proceeds go to Buddhism education programs and medical expenses. The pagoda-style treats are made exclusively for the temple, though, so you’ll just have to take a little summer vacation to see the famous landmark.