US President Joe Biden today warned the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that there are new challenges to international security, posed by Russia and China, that the alliance must face together.
“There is growing recognition in recent years that we have new challenges. We have Russia, which behaves differently than we expected, and we have China,” Biden said during a meeting with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg. , arriving at the headquarters of the institution in Brussels for its first summit of the alliance.
Biden also stressed the need for “greater coordination” between the allies, in a direct reference to the unease generated in NATO by the decision of the United States to negotiate its exit from Afghanistan without consulting with the other countries of the military alliance.
“I want to be very clear: NATO is of paramount importance for our interests and in itself,” said the US president, who again referred to a “sacred obligation” of his country with the alliance, the news agency reported. AFP.
Unlike all the other leaders, who walked into NATO headquarters to make quick statements, the huge convoy with the US president headed to the other end of the compound, and Biden entered through a side access.
The US president arrived in Brussels last night to participate in the NATO summit today, and on another morning between the United States and the European Union (EU).
It is Biden’s first international tour since coming to power in January, an eight-day trip with visits to three countries that included a G7 summit in England over the weekend.
On Wednesday, before returning to the United States, Biden will hold his first summit with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Geneva, Switzerland.
The White House stressed yesterday in a statement that Biden will reaffirm his country’s commitment to collective defense and security at the Atlantic Alliance summit.
Stoltenberg, for his part, assured that the military alliance will not lead a “new cold war”, but defended the strengthening of the bloc’s capabilities in the face of the challenges posed by China.
“We are not entering a new cold war and China is not our adversary or our enemy, but as an alliance, we must address the challenges that China poses to our security,” in the face of its military escalation and expansion of power in the world, he said at a conference. press prior to the start of the summit.
