Biden proclaims NATO alliance 'more united than ever' as he celebrates new member Finland

AT NATO summit in Lithuania, allies agree to language that would further pave the way for Ukraine to also become a future member

By AP

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Joe Biden waves following a family photo with Nordic leaders from left, Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Biden, Finland's President Sauli Niinisto, Iceland's Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir and Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki. — AP

Published: Thu 13 Jul 2023, 7:45 PM

US President Joe Biden said he and other NATO leaders showed the world that the military alliance remains “more united than ever,” as he on Thursday capped off a trip in Europe meant to demonstrate the force of the international coalition against Russia's action in Ukraine.

The allies “understand that this fight is not only a fight for the future of Ukraine,” Biden said, noting that it's also about sovereignty and security.

“At this critical moment in history, this inflection point, the world watching to see, will we do the hard work that matters to forge a better future? Will we stand together, will we stand with one another? Will we stay committed to our course?,” Biden said. He said the answer was a “resounding yes".

Earlier on Thursday, Biden met with the leaders of other Nordic nations including Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. Sweden is poised to be admitted as NATO’s 32nd member country after it pledged more cooperation with Turkey on counterterrorism efforts while backing Ankara’s bid to join the European Union. Finland gained NATO membership earlier this year.

Both Finland and Sweden abandoned a history of military non-alignment and sought to join NATO alliance after Russia invaded Ukraine last year.

Biden's brief stop in the shoreline Finnish capital is the coda to a tour that was carefully sketched to highlight the growth of a military alliance that the president says has fortified itself since the Ukraine crisis. Finland's admittance to NATO effectively doubled the alliance’s border with Russia.

Biden arrived in Helsinki after what he deemed a successful NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, where allies agreed to language that would further pave the way for Ukraine to also become a future member. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the summit's outcome “a significant security victory" for his country but nonetheless expressed disappointment at not getting an outright invitation to join.

Biden and other administration officials also held what aides said were pivotal conversations with Turkey before that country dropped its objections to Sweden joining NATO.

Biden said he felt good about the trip. “We accomplished every goal we set out to accomplish,” he told reporters on Wednesday before the flight to Finland.

And despite Zelensky's expressed frustrations, Biden — who met with the Ukrainian leader Wednesday in Vilnius — said on Thursday that Zelensky “ended up being very happy".

The US president’s trip this week — a meticulously choreographed endeavour meant to showcase international opposition to Putin’s act in Ukraine — played out nearly five years to the day since then-President Donald Trump infamously stood alongside Putin in Helsinki and cast doubt on his own intelligence apparatus. That was just days after Trump tore through a NATO summit where he disparaged the alliance and from which he threatened to withdraw the United States.

In contrast, Biden has heartily embraced the tenets of multilateralism that Trump shunned, speaking repeatedly of having to rebuild international coalitions after four tumultuous years led by his predecessor. The garrulous former Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman is in his element at summits abroad, and speaks of how his background in international policy is proof positive that decades of experience on the world stage has mattered for the presidency.