Madrid President Joe Biden and his fellow NATO leaders on Thursday walked out of a very important summit meeting that made the defense alliance bigger, stronger and more focused.
However, after two high-level summits in Europe this week, questions remain about Biden's ability to convince other leaders and the American public that supporting Ukraine and punishing Russia are still worth the price.
Leader after leader at the two summits, including Biden, pledged to support Ukraine "as long as it takes", but few were willing to offer a real timetable for ending the conflict.
This contributed to a sense of danger that overshadowed many statements, some very important, at the G7 in the Bavarian Alps and later at the NATO meeting in Madrid. The leaders explicitly warned against growing tiredness and a lack of interest in the war because it alienated their people.
Here are five notes from Biden's trip to the G7 and NATO summits in Europe:
The Alliance Stands Together - For Now
"Unity" was the buzzword this week as leaders tried to show they were still aligned as the war in Ukraine entered its fifth month. Despite controversial concerns, NATO leaders left Madrid with a renewed sense of purpose after years of hesitation about how to deal with Russia.
The alliance will grow even more after Finland and Sweden are officially invited to join. The way was cleared for the two countries, each with a long history of military non-alignment, after Turkey withdrew its objections, giving this summit a somewhat unexpected boost in its early stages.
Commanders made significant improvements to the posture of NATO forces along the eastern edge, increasing the number of troops on high alert sevenfold. Biden announced new regular deployments of US forces to the Baltic states and Romania, new ships to Spain and aircraft to the United Kingdom and, for the first time, a permanent military headquarters in Poland.
After deliberating on the issue for years, NATO made it clear in its updated mission statement that Russia now poses the "greatest threat to Allied security". He mentioned China for the first time, saying that the emerging partnership between Moscow and Beijing "contradicts our values."
Together, these achievements represent a fundamental shift in the alliance, which has struggled for years to determine the best way to deal with Russia. President Vladimir Putin, who fears the alliance's eastward expansion, faces a more united group.
"He wanted a little bit of NATO," Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said this week. And now President Putin is bringing more NATO to its borders.
Zelensky urges Allied leaders to help him turn the tide
Despite the determination, it is unclear whether any of the actions taken in response to the war in Ukraine at this week's meetings in Europe - new sanctions, more military aid and NATO - could change the momentum on the battlefield. Currently serving Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged NATO leaders to help him regain the initiative during his summit speech on Wednesday, and called for more modern artillery and continued support to fight the Russians.
"The war must not continue," Zelensky said. "To break the advantage of Russian artillery, we need a lot of these modern systems, modern artillery."
Biden said at a press conference that he is preparing to unveil $800 million in new security assistance, including the same model missile defense system used to protect airspace in Washington, DC. Other countries made similar promises.
But the weapons remain inferior to what Zelensky ordered, and it seems unlikely at this point that they will radically change the course of the war. Instead, leaders hope that Russia will exhaust its forces and artillery, and that Western sanctions will prevent it from resupplying.
Western leaders have not yet decided the final game in Ukraine
Biden gave few indications during his press conference that he believed the feud would soon be over. Instead it is He suggested that Americans tolerate higher gasoline prices for at least a little longer.
"As long as Russia cannot defeat Ukraine and bypass Ukraine," he said.
He echoed a term used throughout this week's summit.
"Ukraine can count on us as long as it takes," Stoltenberg told reporters in Madrid.
"We will continue to provide financial, humanitarian and military support to Ukraine for as long as necessary," the G7 leaders said in a joint statement.
But how long that will take is still unknown and is a point of contention for Western leaders. Some push for a decisive victory on the battlefield. Others believe that more aggressive attempts should be made to broker a deal, especially given the economic fallout at home.
“The consensus is that the war in Ukraine will go on for a long time,” Avril Haines, director of national intelligence, said at a news briefing Wednesday, providing a bleak short-term assessment of what has become an all-out conflict.
High prices at home remain your top priority when traveling abroad
At the top of the leaders' list of priorities this week was finding a way to mitigate the high cost of gasoline that frustrates their people and gives them political headaches.
"When we agreed to respond, we realized there would be costs to our people and we imposed sanctions on Russia," Biden said during his meeting with the Spanish king this week.
However, the scale of the price increase surprised many on Biden's team, leaving them in a precarious position months before the midterm elections.
Finding a way out of the impasse proved difficult. Biden's attempts to date — freeing barrels of oil from stockpiles, penalizing oil companies, and lowering the gas tax — have made little progress.
He has already succeeded in persuading his fellow G7 leaders to agree to an attempt to lower Russian oil prices, an idea championed by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. But how and when this could be achieved was an unanswered question when the summit ended. He indicated during his press conference that the West could use its influence by not providing insurance for ships that transport goods.
"We will not provide them with insurance, so it will be very difficult for them to find clients," he said.
He hinted that one of his goals on his next foreign trip to the Middle East would be to persuade the Gulf states to increase production, although he denied his hosts' demand specifically in Saudi Arabia to start pumping more oil.
"I indicated to them that I think they should increase oil production in general, not to the Saudis in particular," he said.
Biden's problems at home were exacerbated by his successes abroad
US presidents have always had more unilateral leeway in their foreign policy priorities than their domestic agenda, which usually requires the cooperation of Congress.
For Biden, this phenomenon appears to be highly developed. His aggressive approach to arming Ukraine and uniting the West behind Russian sanctions bears little resemblance to his struggles to develop domestic politics at home.
Some Democrats privately complained that Biden appears unwilling to fight for his national priorities, such as restoring abortion and voting rights, compared to Ukraine.
In some ways, the uneven level of success at home and abroad was exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. Biden's goals abroad — to punish Russia — make things more difficult for him domestically, as rising gas prices erode his political capital.
He is not the only leader facing political obstacles. The British prime minister, the French president and the German chancellor are facing voter discontent at home.
However, Biden appears to be in a particularly tense mood and appears unable to improve, and even the Democratic Party is quietly beginning to question his leadership.
When you return to Washington on Thursday, you will find that the challenges you left behind last week have come to nothing.
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