NATO Summit opened in Brussels

Baku. 11 July. REPORT.AZ/ The 29th NATO summit has kicked off in capital of Belgium.

Report informs, Secretary General of the Alliance Jens Stoltenberg spoke at the opening of the security conference.

54 official delegations participate in the summit, including 29 NATO allies, 20 partner countries and representatives of the United Nations, the European Union, the World Bank and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev arrived in Belgiumto participate in the summit.

It is expected that on the first day of the event the leaders of the Alliance member countries will decide on the increase of NATO's role in the fight against terrorism within the framework of the summit, agree to start a new training mission in Iraq with the participation of hundreds of NATO instructors, confirm the support of key partners in the Middle East and North Africa, including Tunisia and Jordan.

Also during the summit, the Allies intend to invite Skopje to begin negotiations on joining the Alliance to become the 30th member of NATO under a new name: the Republic of Northern Macedonia.

Regional challenges will be discussed at a meeting with the leadership of Georgia and Ukraine on July 12.

The summit will end with a meeting on Afghanistan, in which, in addition to the leaders of NATO countries, the partners in the NATO mission "Resolute Support" will also take part. It is expected that at the meeting the leaders will agree to increase the financing of the Afghan forces after 2020 and express their support for the peace initiative of President Ashraf Ghani and the reform efforts.