He also pointed out that Russia poses an immediate threat to the NATO members. He considered that NATO is facing the most significant challenge since World War II. "We will stress clearly during the summit, which will review the Alliance's roadmap for the first time since 2010, that Russia represents a direct threat to our security," he said, according to AFP.

He also announced that important decisions about NATO's eastern and southern fronts and terrorism will be taken today.

As for the membership of Finland and Sweden after Turkey's approval yesterday evening, he explained that it needs 30 European parliaments to ratify it.

The general secretary indicated that NATO views China as a challenge, not an enemy. He said: "Beijing is considered as a challenge to the values, interests and security of the alliance, but it is not an adversary to it."
One of the main issues in this summit, besides the Russian-Ukrainian file, is to strengthen the military presence of the defensive Alliance on its eastern front.

Stoltenberg had made it clear last Monday that the Alliance would increase the size of its rapid reaction force to 300,000 soldiers, from about 40,000 soldiers currently. He also indicated at the time that the allies would discuss how to respond to the growing influence of Russia and China in NATO's "southern region".

At the summit, Turkey " got what it needed," Stoltenberg said regarding Finland and Sweden's bid into the Alliance. The two Nordic countries agreed to extradite Kurdish PKK members to turkey and coordinate with Ankara regarding terrorism. 

The Madrid summit, which started yesterday evening with an official dinner, will be followed today by important discussions with expectations to address the issue of the "new strategic concept" of the Alliance, which is the renewal of NATO members' commitments every ten years, with a review of the threats facing the military Alliance and how to deal with them.