WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is heading to Europe on Sunday, where he will spend time in three nations tending to alliances that have been put to the test by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
After arriving in London at night, Biden will meet King Charles III the next day for the first time since he was crowned. Next up is the centerpiece of the trip, the nato summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. Alliance leaders will discuss the war and review plans to deal with Russian aggression.
The last stop is in Helsinki, where Biden is expected to celebrate the expansion of the alliance, with Finland as the country, on Thursday. new NATO member.
His national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the trip “will showcase the president’s leadership on the world stage.”
A look at Biden’s agenda and the issues he will face:
London
Biden arrives in London on Sunday night and is expected to have a full schedule of meetings on Monday.
“There’s always a lot to talk about with the UK,” said Max Bergmann, a former State Department official who heads the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Biden will hold talks with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at 10 Downing St. Sunak faces an election late next year. His Conservative Party trails far behind the opposition in opinion polls.
Despite Sunak’s shaky political position, he has fostered close ties with Biden and it will be their sixth meeting since Sunak took over Last October.
Bergmann said Sunak’s tenure has been a nice change of pace after “there were some concerns that Boris Johnson,” one of Sunak’s predecessors, “would be a loose cannon.”
Biden will visit the king at Windsor Castle, a royal residence on the outskirts of London. Biden did not attend Carlos’s coronation — first lady Jill Biden it was instead — so this will be their first meeting since then.
They are expected to discuss climate change, an issue that has been a focus for both leaders, and how to finance initiatives to tackle the problem.
Vilnius
Biden will spend two days in the Lithuanian capital, which hosts the annual NATO summit. He will participate in meetings with leaders and deliver a speech from Vilnius University.
The alliance has been reinvigorated by the war in Ukraine, and members have been investing military equipment in the country to help repel an invasion from Russia.
Biden on Friday defended what he said was a “difficult decision” to provide cluster bombs to Ukraine, a move his administration called key to the fight and backed by Ukraine’s pledge to use the controversial bombs carefully. Biden is likely to face questions from allies about why the United States would send a weapon in Ukraine that more than two-thirds of NATO members have banned because it has a history for causing many civilian casualties.
For Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the summit “will send a clear message: NATO stands together and Russia’s aggression will not pay.”
But NATO has also had trouble bridging divisions on important issues. Finland was welcomed into the alliance this year, but Sweden’s membership has been delayed by Turkey and Hungary.
There are also disagreements about how quickly to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join NATO.
Countries on NATO’s eastern flank want to move quickly and see it as a way to deter Russian aggression. The United States and others advocate a more cautious approach.
One issue has already been resolved, at least for now. Stoltenberg’s term has been extended for one year because the members could not agree on a new leader.
Senator Thom Tillis, who will attend the summit, likened the alliance to a gathering of dozens of family members who argue and clash but nevertheless stick together.
“At the end of the day, you know you are family,” said Tillis, RN.C.
Tillis is leading a bipartisan delegation along with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, DN.H., who said NATO is more powerful than ever.
“It is the strongest military alliance in our history, and I think it has only gotten stronger as a result of the leadership of the United States, as a result of Stoltenberg’s leadership, and as a result of Vladimir Putin’s threat to all NATO and other allies. countries. in Europe and throughout the world and to the international order, ”he said.
helsinki
After two nights in Vilnius, Biden visits Helsinki. The stop is a bit of a victory lap, but it could also be a reminder of unfinished business.
The Nordic country became in April the 31 NATO memberending its history of non-alignment and demonstrating how the Russian invasion of the Ukraine has failed in Europe.
Finland was supposed to join neighboring Sweden, whose admission has been stalled due to Turkey and Hungary. NATO requires the unanimous consent of all its members to expand.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson visited the white house on Wednesday and met with Biden to keep up the pressure for membership. But there is little hope that the issue will be resolved in Vilnius.
The White House describes Biden’s visit to Helsinki as a “Nordic-American Leaders Summit”.
It is a very different occasion than the last time an American president visited Helsinki five years ago.
During that trip, Donald Trump held a press conference with Putin and discarded concerns about Russian meddling in Trump’s election victory.
Now Biden is heading to the city to demonstrate how his administration has held the line against Moscow and expanded Western defences.
