Your Monday briefing: NATO prepares to meet

Also, Janet Yellen leaves Beijing with hope, but no breakthrough.

ImageThe Baltic states and others on Europe's eastern flank feel particularly vulnerable to Russia.Credit...Petras Malukas/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A glimpse of the summit NATO

Leaders of NATO countries are preparing for two days of meetings starting tomorrow in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital.

Ukraine will be a major issue. War has raged there for over 500 days and the counteroffensive is slowly advancing. Ukraine wants to join NATO, but President Biden said yesterday it was "premature" to begin the process of admitting the country in the midst of war.

I spoke to Steven Erlanger, our chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe, about what we can expect from the meeting.

Amelia: What NATO allies hope to achieve with this summit?

Steven: The main task of this NATO summit is to show the unity and solidarity of the alliance in favor of Ukraine.

It will be full of the most gassy rhetoric you can imagine. But it is also important because Russia thinks, in our view, that it can wait for Western support for Ukraine. And really the main task of this summit is to say to President Vladimir Putin: "T...