INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NATO allies on Wednesday announced they had started transferring F-16 jets to Ukraine while stepping up promises to Kyiv on eventual
membership in the alliance, at a 75th anniversary summit clouded by political uncertainties in the United States.With the pomp of the
three-day gathering in the United States capital, President Joe Biden is aiming to rally the West and also reassure voters amid
31 leaders of the alliance before urging them to keep pace with Russia's military production, which has stepped up sharply in the two
Biden told the North Atlantic Council, the formal decision-making body of the alliance, at Washington's convention center as the city
making good on a key promise last year to Kyiv, which has struggled to gain parity in the air with Russia.He earlier announced new air
defense systems for Ukraine and said the United States had agreed to place long-range missiles periodically in Germany.In the evening Biden
hosted the NATO leaders for a gala dinner, marked by storm clouds that forced the cancellation of a planned flypast.Biden compared the
alliance to his childhood neighborhood, saying: "When a neighbor needed help, you pitched in
When the bullies threatened the block, you stepped up."United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the F-16 transfer "concentrates
Vladimir Putin's mind on the fact that he will not outlast Ukraine, he will not outlast us."But White House challenger Donald Trump, who
is edging out Biden in polls leading up to November's presidential election, has mused about bringing a quick peace settlement by pushing
barrage of missiles on Ukraine, killing dozens, including in Kyiv where a children's hospital was reduced to debris.Biden invited
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the summit, who voiced gratitude for the F-16s.The new aircraft will "bring just and lasting peace
including by giving NATO a greater role, rather than the United States, in coordinating arms delivery into Ukraine.In a joint declaration,
stability after Trump's allies in Congress held up US assistance for months.Trump's aides have also discussed conditioning aid to
Ukraine on forcing Kyiv to the negotiating table and said that China, not Russia, is a larger concern to United States interests.The NATO
leaders' statement took aim at China as well, voicing "profound concern" over its industrial support to Russia.China's reaction was
swift."NATO should stop hyping up the so-called China threat and provoking confrontation and rivalry, and do more to contribute to world
peace and stability," a spokesman for Beijing's mission to the EU said, adding that "China's position on Ukraine is open and
NATO's role in Asia.'Irreversible' Ukraine path to NATOThe summit also stepped up promises to Ukraine, saying that it was on an
"irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership."Ukraine has for years sought but failed to win membership
in NATO, which as an alliance considers an attack on one an attack on all.But Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have led concerns that
bringing in Kyiv now would effectively be entering war with nuclear-armed Russia as it occupies swathes of Ukrainian territory.U.K
missiles to strike into Russian territory, remarks that drew a rebuke from Moscow.The summit, Starmer told reporters, is showing Putin that
NATO is "bigger now than it's ever been, more united than it's ever been, and absolutely clear-eyed about the threat of Russian
