From July 11-12, Lithuania is scheduled to host the 2023 NATO summit in Vilnius. According to Lithuanian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mantas Adomėnas, the summit's success will be predicated on three principal dimensions: (1) Ukraine's NATO prospects, (2) defense of the eastern flank, and (3) defense spending. On this week's episode of The Eastern Front, Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia explore these principals with Adomėnas and discuss what a NATO arrangement might look like for Ukraine. Does the EU see the war as an excuse for Ukraine's expedited integration into NATO? Will the EU forget about its commitments to defense spending and the military after the war is over? How can the West prepare for the "new reality" of an increasingly unpredictable world? And as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's signals that Ukraine is preparing for its counteroffensive, could a demonstrable show of success before July impact the summit?

Show notes: Sign up for The Eastern Front's biweekly newsletter here. Follow us on Twitter here.