Biden Wrapping Up Trip: 'NATO Stands Together'
Prepared for summit, president calls Putin "a worthy adversary"
President Biden began wrapping up his first overseas trip Monday night by emphasizing both the revitalized role for the NATO Alliance to play in the supremacy of transatlantic security, as well as his own position ahead of Wednesday's sit-down with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Biden gave reporters an overview of his trip during a press conference at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
“NATO stands together. That’s how we’ve met every other threat in the past. It’s our greatest strength as we meet our challenges of the future — and there are many. And everyone — everyone in that room today understood the shared appreciation, quite frankly, that America is back,” Biden said, making reference to former president Donald Trump's efforts to weaken the transatlantic alliance which has stood as a bulwark of security for American presidential administrations of both political parties since the end of World War II.
Biden said that NATO leaders talked about “Russia’s aggressive acts that pose a threat to NATO and to our collective security.
”That’s why I met with the Bucharest 9 — the eastern flank allies — in advance of this summit. And today I also met with the leaders of the three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania,” he said.
“I shared with our allies that I will convey to President Putin: that I’m not looking for conflict with Russia, but that we will respond if Russia continues its harmful activities and that we will not fail to defend the transatlantic alliance or stand up for democratic values,” Biden added. “As allies, we also affirmed our continued support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
“We agreed to keep consulting closely on nuclear deterrence, arms control, and strategic stability.”
In nesponse to questions from the press, Biden was reluctant to negotiate with Putin in the media. However, he offered a bit of a preview of his summit with the Russian leader that he just earlier this year called “a killer.”
“But I will tell you this: I’m going to make clear to President Putin that there are areas where we can cooperate, if he chooses," Biden said. "And if he chooses not to cooperate and acts in a way that he has in the past, relative to cybersecurity and some other activities, then we will respond. We will respond in kind.
“We should decide where it’s in our mutual interest, in the interest of the world, to cooperate, and see if we can do that. And the areas where we don’t agree, make it clear what the red lines are,” the president added. “I have met with him. He’s bright. He’s tough. And I have found that he is a — as they say, when you used to play ball, ‘a worthy adversary.’”