Biden arrived at his first NATO summit as president as
leading members declared it a pivotal moment for an alliance beleaguered during
the presidency of Donald Trump, who questioned the relevance of the
multilateral organization.
Shortly after arriving at the alliance’s headquarters for the first NATO summit
of his presidency, Biden sat down with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
and underscored the U.S. commitment to Article 5 of the alliance charter, which
spells out that an attack on one member is an attack on all and is to be met
with a collective response.
“Article 5 we take as a sacred obligation,” Biden
said. “I want NATO to know America is there.”
It was a sharp shift in tone from the past four years,
when Trump called the alliance “obsolete” and complained that it allowed for
“global freeloading” countries to spend less on military defense at the expense
of the U.S.
Looking forward, Stoltenberg noted myriad challenges
still facing the alliance.
“We are meeting at the pivotal time for our alliance,
the time of growing geopolitical competition, regional instability, terrorism,
cyber attacks and climate change,” Stoltenberg said at the start of a joint
session of the NATO leaders. “No nation and no continent can deal with these
challenges alone. But Europe and North America are not alone.”
Biden, who came to Brussels following three days of consultations with Group of
Seven leaders in England, was greeted by fellow leaders with warmth and even a
bit of relief.
Belgium Prime Minister Alexander de Croo said Biden’s
presence “emphasizes the renewal of the transatlantic partnership.” De Croo
said NATO allies were looking to get beyond four stormy years under the Trump
administration and infighting among member countries.
“I think now we are ready to turn the page,” de Croo
said.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi made a
not-so-subtle dig at Trump, while welcoming Biden.
“This summit is a continuation of yesterday’s G-7 and
is part of the process of reaffirming, of rebuilding the fundamental alliances
of the United States that had been weakened by the previous administration,” he
said. “Think that President Biden’s first visit is to Europe and try to
remember where President Trump’s first visit was?”
Trump’s first overseas visit as president was to Saudi Arabia.
Trump routinely berated other NATO countries for not
spending enough on defense and even threatened to pull the U.S. out of the
world’s biggest security organization and even questioned the mutual defense
provision of the NATO charter, a central tenet of the alliance.
When alliance members last met for a summit in England
in December 2019, Trump grabbed headlines by calling Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau “two-faced” and French President Emmanuel Macron “nasty.”
Trump lashed out after Trudeau was caught on a hot mic
gossiping with other leaders about Trump turning photo opportunities into long
news conferences. Ahead of the summit, Macron had declared NATO “brain dead”
because of a void in U.S. leadership under Trump.
The White House said the communique to be signed by
alliance members at the end of the NATO summit is expected to include language
about updating Article 5 to include major cyber attacks — a matter of growing
concern amid a series of hacks targeting the U.S. government and businesses
around the globe by Russia-based hackers.
The update will spell out that if an alliance member
needs technical or intelligence support in response to a cyber attack, it would
be able to invoke the mutual defense provision to receive assistance, according
to White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
The president started his day meeting with leaders of
the Baltic states on NATO’s eastern flank as well as separate meetings with
leaders of Poland and Romania to discuss the threat posed by Russia and the
recent air piracy in Belarus, according to the White House.
Biden’s itinerary in Europe has been shaped so that he
would first gather with G-7 leaders and then with NATO allies in Brussels
before his much-anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in
Geneva on Wednesday. And with both summits, Biden aimed to consult European
allies on efforts to counter provocative actions by China and Russia.
Biden will meet later on Monday with Turkey’s
president, Erdogan, on the summit sidelines.
Biden has known Erdogan for years but their
relationship has frequently been contentious. Biden, during his campaign, drew
ire from Turkish officials after he described Erdogan as an “autocrat.” In
April, Biden infuriated Ankara by declaring that the Ottoman-era mass killing
and deportations of Armenians was “genocide” — a term that U.S. presidents have
avoided using.
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