HELSINKI: U.S. President Joe Biden ended his three-nation trip to Europe with a resounding statement of support for NATO, seeking to allay European fears that a change in U.S. administration would mean uncertainty for Washington’s ties with its transatlantic allies.
“I absolutely guarantee you. There is no question,” he said during a joint press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto Thursday in Helsinki. “We will stay connected to NATO. Connected to NATO beginning middle and end. We’re a transatlantic partnership.”
Biden reiterated “overwhelming support” from both parties in the U.S. Congress, “notwithstanding the fact there are some extreme elements of one party.”
He appeared to be referring to the isolationist posture of some Republicans influenced by the “America First” principle espoused by Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, who repeatedly questioned NATO’s purpose and, in 2017, called the alliance obsolete.
“The American people know, since the end of World War II and the formation of NATO that our security rests in the unanimity among European and transatlantic partner – us,” he said.
Biden’s guarantees of transatlantic unity against Russian President Vladimir Putin presents a markedly different tone than the last time an American leader spoke in the Finnish presidential palace.
Exactly five years ago this week, Trump met with Putin and, in a stunning rebuke of his own intelligence agencies’ assessment, sided with Putin over whether the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.
(VOA)
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