WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden heads to the NATO summit he is organizing this week in Washington with two distinct challenges, none of them easy.
On the international stage, he wants to advocate for the preservation of global alliances at a time when many populist and nationalist leaders are looking inward, his advisers say.
But the toughest task will be on the domestic front, where he will need to face three days of meetings, speeches and dinners – culminated by a press conference on Thursday – with the vigor and focus that were noticeably absent during his debate with Donald Trump . .
The summit is expected to be a friendly forum for Biden, who is trying to fend off calls from fellow Democrats to drop out of the presidential race after his poor debate performance was demonstrated.
This is happening on home soil, so he won’t have to deal with the overseas travel and late hours that he says left him exhausted before the debate.
“He will be on the international stage,” said William Daley, President Barack Obama’s White House chief of staff. “This is the first big stage the president has had since the debate.”
Biden has invested vast amounts of political capital to help Ukraine defeat Russia’s invasion, and the summit will show how the pro-Ukraine coalition he helped forge remains largely intact.
He and his NATO counterparts will implement a series of measures to bolster Ukraine’s war machine, White House officials said ahead of the meeting of NATO’s 32 member countries.
The leaders are expected to announce deliveries of new air defense systems that will help Ukraine shoot down Russian missiles and drones, as well as progress toward admitting Ukraine to NATO, the officials said.
“Look for some very specific results and announcements about NATO support for Ukraine to come out of this summit,” a senior White House official said in an interview. “There will be some important muscle movements that will prove that the support [for Ukraine] It’s still very strong.”
The summit marks the 75th anniversary of NATO, a collective defense treaty that served as a bulwark against Soviet and Russian aggression in Europe in the post-World War II period. The agreement’s mutual defense clause – known as Article 5 – was invoked only once, when the US asked NATO allies to join the response to the 9/11 attacks.
Biden will welcome other NATO leaders Tuesday night at an event at Mellon Auditorium, where the treaty was signed on April 4, 1949. The following evening, Biden will host a dinner for his NATO counterparts at White House.
The alliance relies heavily on U.S. funding, leadership and military support, which appeared to be in jeopardy during Trump’s presidency. Arguing that the US was being misled, Trump blamed several European allies for failing to meet their commitment to set aside 2% of their gross domestic product for defense.
In February, Trump said Russia could do “anything it wants” to countries that don’t spend enough on defense, raising the possibility that, if elected, he would ignore NATO’s Article 5 provision.
“There is no doubt that NATO would be seriously at risk, given Trump’s clearly stated disregard of NATO’s value to the United States,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Armed Services Committee, said in an interview . “And the same applies to Ukraine.”
Biden has begun reviewing drafts of a speech he will deliver at the conference, the senior official said. One message he is likely to send is that NATO members have increased military spending on his watch, undermining Trump’s portrayal of some European allies as profiteers.
When Trump left office in January 2021, only nine allies met the 2% threshold, according to the Biden administration. Today, there are 23.
“The view of many Americans is that the Europeans are doing nothing and are taking advantage of us and not carrying the burden,” James Townsend, former assistant secretary of defense for European and NATO policy, said in a briefing. for reporters hosted by the Atlantic Council think tank. “This case is getting weaker and weaker.”
Looming over the summit are crucial elections in the US and Europe. New British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will join the summit just days after his Labor Party crushed the Conservatives in national elections. His center-left party has been out of power for 14 years.
A far-right party led by Marine Le Pen was heading for a dismal third place in France on Sunday, a unexpected result that Biden will certainly celebrate.
Le Pen said in an interview with CNN that if his party gained power, it would prevent France from arming Ukraine with weapons that could attack within Russia’s borders.
Le Pen’s loss helps strengthen consensus within NATO to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty. Hungary, however, remains an exception. Its prime minister, Viktor Orbán, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week to discuss ending the war. A nationalist who befriended TrumpOrbán angered US authorities with his trip to Moscow.
“Obviously we were not pleased with Orbán’s visit,” the senior White House official said. “But he is Orbán and we have been dealing with him for some time.”
Another issue confronting NATO is the fate of Biden and the prospect of Trump’s return. Foreign policy experts said they expect the presidential race to be the focus of private meetings and conversations during the summit.
Trump defends what he calls the “America First” approach, which questions the alliances the US has forged between nations that share its democratic tradition and liberal values.
Biden will undoubtedly use the summit to defend the internationalist approach he defends. An opportune moment will be Thursday’s press conference, assuming he can speak with noticeably more coherence and force than he did during the June 27 Trump debate.
“This is a huge opportunity for him [Biden] lead with vigor and energy and underline their commitment to the alliance,” said Ian Brzezinski, another former defense official who spoke at the Atlantic Council briefing.
“He needs to do this not just at the table and in closed-door meetings, but using all the public forums this summit creates to demonstrate that leadership,” Brzezinski said.
“That’s what allied leaders will be looking for. They are obviously concerned about what was seen in the debate. This is a great opportunity to significantly reverse that impression.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
