i am robin quinville and a director of the global europe program here at the center, and where focus on the challenges europe is facing today and how we work together on those. among these challenges is russia's invasion of ukraine two years ago and the threat it poses to our security as transatlantic partners. as a result of that invasion, nato's membership has grown adding finland and sweden to its strength, and the question of ukraine relationship to nato is going to be front and center at this summer washington summit. the european union has sped forward europeans -- opening negotiations just last month and while that would be a very dependent process, the decision also recognizes and supports ukraine's european future. what we are seeing is a strategic shift. the invasion of ukraine has shifted europe's threat perception arguably europe's center of gravity. and this is give an immediate impetus to the weimar triangle, france, germany and poland working co-op really together on issues of concern. and so in fact, while cooperation between france and germany has often been seen as