site.btaUPDATED US President Biden Opens NATO Summit, Confers with Bulgarian PM Glavchev

US President Joe Biden opened the NATO Summit in Washington by stressing the importance of the Alliance and international stability. The opening ceremony was attended by Bulgaria's caretaker Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Dimitar Glavchev, who heads the Bulgarian delegation to the Summit. The event took place at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium where the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty that established NATO occurred on April 4, 1949.

Conferring with Biden, Glavchev said that Bulgaria is a loyal and reliable NATO ally. The US president highly appreciated Bulgaria's role on NATO's eastern flank, the Council of Ministers said in a press release on Wednesday.

In the coming months, the US and other NATO countries will send Ukraine dozens of air defense systems, including at least four Patriot systems.

Calling for greater support from its Western allies, Ukraine is demanding that it receives more air defense assets to be able to repel the Russian invaders. Arriving in Washington on Monday for the NATO Summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he would fight for strong decisions to support his country, emphasizing on funds for air defence and more F-16 fighter jets.

Amid growing calls for him to withdraw from the US presidential election in November after his unconvincing performance in the televised debates with Republican nominee Donald Trump in end-June, Democrat Biden used his speech to contrast his foreign policy views with those of his rival, BBC said.

Agence France-Presse wrote that Trump casts a shadow over the NATO Summit despite his absence from the event. Many allies worry about NATO’s future if Trump, who has called the Alliance "obsolete" and threatened not to defend those NATO countries that do not give enough money for defence, returns to the White House, France-Presse said.