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STORY: In a major step aimed at countering what NATO allies say is a growing Russian threat, the United States will start deploying longer range missiles in Germany in two years.

The two countries announced the move at NATO's summit in Washington, with U.S. President Joe Biden hailing on Wednesday pledges by member states to invest in defense.

"We can and will defend every inch of NATO territory, and we will do it together."

The decision will send to Germany the most potent U.S. weapons to be based on the European continent since the Cold War.

A U.S.-Germany statement said the longer term plan is to station in Europe weapons such as Tomahawk and hypersonic missiles, which "have significantly longer range than current land-based fires" there.

In a summit declaration released on Wednesday, the NATO member states said:

"We cannot discount the possibility of an attack against Allies’ sovereignty and territorial integrity."

The declaration also announced a plan to provide Ukraine with at least $43 billion in military aid within the next year.

It stopped short of the multi-year commitment NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had sought.

But the group did formalize Ukraine's "irreversible path" to joining the security alliance in the document, as Stoltenberg explained at a media briefing:

"The work we are doing together now will ensure that when the time is right, Ukraine can join without delay. It is not a question of if, but when."

There was also strong language on China, with the 32 NATO allies jointly labeling the country a "decisive enabler" of Russia's war effort in Ukraine.

"China provides dual use equipment, microelectronics, a lot of other tools, which are enabling Russia to build the missiles, to build the bombs, to build the aircrafts, to build the weapons they're using to attack Ukraine."

The NATO leaders said they are "open to constructive engagement" with Beijing.

But that they're also boosting their "shared awareness" against what they called China's "coercive tactics and efforts to divide the Alliance".

After viewing a draft of the communique, a spokesperson for the Chinese mission to the European Union slammed the statement as full of "belligerent rhetoric" as well as "provocations, lies, incitement and smears".