Biden opens NATO door to Ukraine after the war

The US President was to meet King Charles III for the first time since the coronation.

Joe Biden is greeted by US ambassadoer Jane Hartley as he disembarks at Stansted on Sunday night. Picture: AFP

President Joe Biden ­arrived in Britain overnight on Sunday where he will meet King Charles and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak before continuing to Vilnius for a NATO summit, then a final stop in the new NATO member Finland.

Air Force One touched down at Stansted Airport north of London late in the evening.

Overnight on Monday, he was to meet the British monarch at Windsor Castle, one of the royal residences, for the first time since Charles III’s coronation.

The US President did not ­attend the ceremony, sending First Lady Jill Biden instead.

Their talks were expected to focus on environmental issues, the White House said. Mr Biden will also meet Mr Sunak at 10 Downing Street.

The main part of Mr Biden’s Europe trip will be the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital on Tuesday and Wednesday, where the Western allies will discuss helping Ukraine to oust ­Russia’s occupation forces. Ukraine is pressing for admission to the military alliance but Mr Biden said in an interview aired on Sunday with CNN that this could not happen until after the war.

Bringing Ukraine in now would mean NATO is at war with Russia, Mr Biden said. Under its Article 5, NATO is committed to defending any member that comes under ­attack. “It’s a commitment that we’ve all made no matter what. If the war is going on, then we’re all in war. We’re at war with Russia, if that were the case,” Mr Biden said.

Mr Biden hopes to use the summit to pressure Turkey to drop its opposition to Sweden’s all-but-cleared NATO membership bid. Entry requires unanimous consent from all members.

In a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday, Mr Biden “conveyed his desire to welcome Sweden into NATO as soon as possible”, the White House said. The two leaders “expressed their shared commitment to continue supporting Ukraine,” the statement added.

Mr Erdogan’s office said separately that he would meet Mr Biden on the sidelines of the NATO summit.

The talks would focus on “Ukraine’s position in NATO, Sweden’s NATO membership, and the delivery of F-16” fighter jets, which Turkey hopes to secure from the US, the Turkish presidency said.

In the interview with CNN, Mr Biden had said he was considering supplying Turkey and Greece with new or upgraded US-made fighter aircraft as an enticement for Turkey to let Sweden join NATO.

“And so, what I’m trying to … put together is a little bit of a consortium here where we’re strengthening NATO in terms of the military capacity of both Greece as well as Turkey and allow Sweden to come in,” he said.

“But it’s in play. It’s not done.”

Mr Erdogan’s office said, however, that it was “not correct” to link Turkey’s desire to acquire the fighter jets, which need congressional approval, with Sweden’s membership drive.

While in Vilnius, Mr Biden will also deliver a major foreign policy speech at the city’s university.

His trip comes in the wake of a controversial decision to supply Ukraine with cluster munitions, which most NATO member countries have banned but which the US continues to hold in its arsenal and says will help Ukraine destroy heavily dug-in Russian forces.

Mr Biden’s final stop before returning to Washington on Thursday will be Finland, which ended its historic neutrality to enter NATO in response to the Russian attack on Ukraine.

Mr Biden will be the first US president to visit Helsinki since Donald Trump went five years ago to meet Vladimir Putin.

AFP