NATO Summit in Wales May be Most Crucial in Recent Times

The NATO Summit in Wales scheduled to start Thursday, might turn out to be the most important one in recent times. With the world facing the threat of Islamic State and the Russian aggression in Ukraine, which has left the Baltic nations feeling threatened, there is no dearth of issues to discuss and thrash out at the meeting.

The summit is being called the "most "the most important gathering of NATO leaders in more than a decade."

The 28-nation alliance will have a lot to focus on and come up with some concrete actions plans. In Eastern Europe,  Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are all worried that they might just be the next on Russia's agenda.

President Barack Obama said on his visit to Estonia enroute to Cardiff, Wales,  "In this (NATO) alliance, there are no old members or new members, no junior partners or senior partners - there are just allies, pure and simple," reports USA Today.

He added, "We will defend the territorial integrity of every single ally." He also said that the defense of Tallinn and Riga and Vilnius, capital cities of the three Baltic nations, was as important as that of  Berlin and Paris and London.

The Summit will definitely focus on the rising  power of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

 The President also called for patience in coming up with a strategy to deal with the IS. "It is going to take time for us to form the regional coalition that's going to be required so that we can reach out to Sunni tribes in some of the areas that Isis has occupied, and make sure that we have allies on the ground in combination with the air strikes that we've already conducted, " he said, reports the Guardian.

President Obama called for stringent international support if the influence of IS has to be limited. Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain also said, ahead of joining the NATO summit in Wales, that his government was considering joining the United States in air strikes in Iraq.

He said, "We've helped with other military assets, and we'll always ask ourselves what is in our national interest. Not ruling things out, but going forward in a deliberate, sensible, resolute way." He also emphasized that any intervention should be led by the Middle East governments.

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the Jordan's  King Abdullah, will be at the summit, and both will be courted to support tougher military action against IS. 

According to analysts, member countries will focus on preparing a ready-action armed force prepared to deploy at a moment's notice.  Positioning of armed forces and equipment at bases in Poland and the Baltic nations. Rotating troops at the bases so as to contravene an agreement which does not allow a permanent force and deploying ships in the waters affected by the conflict.