Threats from Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping will be a focus of upcoming Nato summit

When leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization gather in Washington next week to commemorate the enduring unity between Europe and North America, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump will be the names dominating the discussions.

A senior official in US President Joe Biden’s administration said on Friday that the negotiations on the final communique of the summit were continuing, but the text in the draft on China was “very solid”.

Reiterating evidence of Beijing’s role in reconstitution of Moscow’s defence industry, he added that China was not only “fuelling” the war in Ukraine but also “creating a long-term challenge for European security that obviously our allies recognise”.

“And so, we will have, I think, strong language on this,” he said, confirming that the issue will be taken up by Nato with its other partners from Europe and the Indo-Pacific.

The three-day gathering, which begins on Tuesday, will take place as the US and Europe seek new friends, navigate competition with new adversaries, and brace for significant domestic political transitions with potentially lasting implications for the world’s oldest surviving defence pact.

In an op-ed published in Foreign Affairs on Wednesday, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Putin had become “increasingly aligned with other authoritarian powers, including China, that wish to see the United States fail, Europe fracture and Nato falter”.

Last month, he said: “Presidents Putin and Xi are adamantly opposed to Nato because they know that in Nato, the United States has something they don’t have – 31 friends and allies.”

And in what sounded like a response to Trump’s remarks about encouraging the Russians to do “whatever the hell they want” to any Nato member