President Biden Joins NATO for Summit After Four Years of Tension
President Biden is heading to the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Summit in Brussels to meet with European leaders in an effort to improve relations between the United States and the other NATO-affiliated countries. Biden’s efforts to re-build ties come after the previous administration had strongly opposed the US’s involvement in NATO. Last year, President Trump had suggested withdrawing the United States from NATO, a move which had caused worry from European countries and Canada as NATO had kept Soviet and Russian aggression at bay for 70 years.
When meeting with the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg prior to the Summit, President Biden assured that “NATO is critically important for US interest” as “it allows America to conduct its business around the world.” Stoltenberg also encouraged the US’s renewed participation and affirmed “we will open a new chapter with the transatlantic meeting today.” Biden’s visit to Brussels comes after a visit to Windsor Castle to meet Queen Elizabeth and reinforce British-American alliance.
Expected topics of discussion at this year’s NATO Summit include: world disaster relief (including controlling the spread of COVID-19), preventing and responding to cyberattacks, terrorism and nuclear attack deterrence. NATO also expects to gather 1 billion COVID-19 vaccines for world relief during the pandemic to help control and stop the spread of the virus.
Items of interest for especially the United States will be the stabilization of situations in the Middle East so that US troops can be removed from Afghanistan. Climate change will also be addressed, and consequently discussions about possible increased use of renewable energy sources. Relations with Russia and China will be discussed to determine courses of action on keeping tension between superpowers at bay. President Biden and President Putin agree that the Russia-US relationship is at its lowest point in years and hope to meet to discuss cybersecurity and other issues that have been causing tension between American and Russian leaders since the previous administration.
