NATO holds its most important summit for decades

, Turkey’s president, wore his usual morose expression. It was mirrored by the stony faces of Magdalena Andersson, Sweden’s prime minister, and Sauli Niinisto, Finland’s president. Only a gentle smile from Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of , hinted at the diplomatic breakthrough that had just occurred. After four hours of intense wrangling in Madrid on the eve of a summit, Mr Erdogan had lifted his veto on Finland’s and Sweden’s bid to join the alliance in return for assurances about their links to Kurdish militants.That was just one among several far-reaching decisions taken by leaders at the summit, which concluded on June 30th. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has upturned European security. In response, is growing bigger and beefier, adopting what Mr Stoltenberg described as “the biggest overhaul of our collective deterrence and defence since the cold war”.