On the final day of the Washington summit, the leaders of countries in the Asia-Pacific region sat down at the same table as the alliance's member states. Their message was clear: Ukraine has to be supported.

"At the NATO Summit, you will see four Asia-Pacific partners: New Zealand, Australia, Japan and South Korea. They know that what is happening in Europe, what is happening in Ukraine, is important for them too. It's important to stand up to authoritarian countries that are trying to change the world order, and in some cases by force," said White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby.

The summit, which marked the 75th anniversary of the Alliance, was punctuated by the NATO-Ukraine Council. The Council raised the question of why some countries that have provided arms to Ukraine do not allow the equipment sent to be used against targets on Russian territory.

"There should be no such restrictions. However, in the end it is up to each member state to decide on the conditions under which it provides arms. Quite a number of people around the table said that if we want Ukraine to win this war, we should not impose conditions on how they win it," Estonian PM Kaja Kallas said.

However, Kallas also said that the summit had been broadly satisfactory.

"As [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy said, yes, it has been a success. It is important that they received a lot of pledges from different countries for additional assistance, especially in the area of air defense. Of course, what jars a bit, is if this air protection had been provided a couple of years ago, the result would have been different. However, it is good that it is now being provided," Kallas said.

In much of the media, the Washington Summit has been overshadowed by developments in U.S. domestic politics, and there has also been discussion about whether the results of the U.S. presidential election will affect NATO and in what way.

"It's not something that's discussed at the table, but it's clear that everything that's going on around here, in the media and at various meetings and side events, is being talked about a lot," said Estonian Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkur (Reform).

"Regardless of whether Joe Biden continues or Donald Trump wins, our task is to get along very well with both administrations and ensure that the United States is a strong ally, not only for NATO as a whole, but also bilaterally with Estonia," he said.

Next year, the Netherlands will host the NATO summit, when the leaders of the Alliance's 32 member states will meet in The Hague.

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