Summit Gets Underway At Top Of Hour

The first major leaders' summit of the day to address the Ukraine crisis gets underway at 1000CET (0500ET, 0900GMT, 1800JST), with NATO leaders meeting in Brussels.

• In doorstep comments, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stated that should Russia use chemical weapons in its war against Ukraine it would "fundamentally change the nature of the conflict,” and violate international law. He also stated that “the NATO leaders will today address the need for a reset of our deterrence and defence in the longer term....the first step is the establishment of four new battlegroups in the eastern part of the Alliance in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia”.
• Another summit will take place at the NATO HQ later today in the form of a G7 leaders' summit (no set timing yet). With Canadian PM Justin Trudeau and UK PM Boris Johnson in attendance at the NATO summit, and Japanese PM Fumio Kishida flying in for the G7 meeting, all member state leaders will be in attendance, as will EU Commission and Council Presidents Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel.
• Post-summit presser from Stoltenberg likely, but no timing set yet. Given that the EU Council summit gets underway around 1630CET with arrivals from 1500CET, it is likely that the NATO summit will have to conclude in the early afternoon Brussels time.