On Monday, President Joseph R. Biden arrived at his first North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit since taking office, meeting with top leaders and officials from 29 other nations. The meeting took place in Brussels, which is the headquarters for the NATO.
Biden is looking to re-establish the dominance and leadership of the U.S. at this summit, as well as make it known his stark differences on foreign policy from his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, who brushed off NATO throughout his term. He reaffirmed the importance to NATO, saying, “I want to make it clear: NATO is critically important for US interests in and of itself. If there weren’t one, we’d have to invent one.”
The overarching theme at this summit is going to be addressing the issues and tension with China and Russia, as well as trying to create a new sense of unity with the 30 nations. Throughout the weeklong summit, Biden will be meeting with world leaders to discuss a variety of different topics but has consistently made it clear the threat that he believes Russia provides a threat to the U.S. and the rest of the world and will continue to address throughout.
Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to meet on Wednesday, in a summit that will be followed very closely. In his statement at the start of the summit, Biden said, “I think that there is a growing recognition over the last couple years that we have new challenges, and we have Russia that is not acting in a way that is consistent with what we had hoped, as well as China,” emphasizing for the nations involved in NATO that things must be done to contain the potential danger coming from those countries.
According to CNN, Biden will also look to stress the growing threat of cybersecurity, particularly citing Russia’s cyber-attacks and attempts to undermine the integrity of U.S. elections. The president has consistently called out Russia and its cyberthreats, and Putin’s inability to take any action against it.
The meeting between the two leaders is expected to be quite tense, and they have decided not to hold a joint press conference together, as Biden believes that will serve as a distraction from focusing on the real issues at hand.
