US President Joe Biden says he has “no good reason” to talk to Vladimir Putin right now. Speaking at a highly-anticipated press conference at the end of the NATO Summit in Washington, Biden ruled out talks with Russia’s leader but said he is in direct contact with China’s president, Xi Jinping.
But the Russian president is not prepared to do anything in terms of “accommodating any change in his behaviour”, he told reporters.
“Putin’s got a problem. First of all, in this war that he has supposedly won. I mean, in terms of percentage of territory, they’ve not been very successful,” he said.
Biden also warned China that if it works with North Korea to help arm Russia, there would be economic consequences.
“The issue is that we have to make sure that Xi understands there’s a price to pay for undercutting both the Pacific Basin as well as Europe, and as relates to Russia and dealing with Ukraine,” Biden said.
Biden used the press conference to deliver a forceful defence of his foreign and domestic policies and batted away questions about his ability to serve another four years, declaring, “I’m not in this for my legacy. I’m in this to complete the job.”
There have been concerns about Biden’s ability to serve another four-year term as president since his stumbling performance in a presidential debate opposite Donald Trump last month.
The first Senate Democrat, Peter Welch of Vermont, and over a dozen House Democrats have publicly called for Biden to end his campaign.
But Biden insists he is staying in the race and said at the press conference that he has the full support of his European counterparts.
“I’m not hearing my European allies come up to me and say, Joe, don’t run. What I hear them say is, you’ve gotta win. You can’t with this guy (Donald Trump) come forward. He’d be a disaster,” he said.
“Foreign policy has never been his strong point, and he seems to have an affinity to people who are authoritarian. That worries Europe.”
He insisted that he is the “best qualified person to do the job” as he reaffirmed American and NATO commitment to Ukraine.
But Thursday was not without its flubs, notably when he referred to his Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump”.
It was unclear whether his performance at the press conference was enough to change the dynamic that has set in with a growing number of Democratic lawmakers, donors and celebrities calling on him to step aside while Biden digs in, insisting he’s staying in the race and will win come November.
“If I slow down and I can’t get the job done, that’s a sign that I shouldn’t be doing it,” Biden said. “But there’s no indication of that yet — none.”
Ukraine Compact
Prior to the press conference, Biden announced a new compact that would bring together NATO countries to support Ukraine.
“We’re building a bridge to NATO for Ukraine, a pathway leading to an eventual membership as they continue to implement important domestic reforms. This compact, which is on the stage here, is a centrepiece of that bridge. What happens to Ukraine matters. Matters to all of Europe. It matters to NATO. Quite frankly, it matters to the whole world,” he said.
In a statement, the European Commission said the three-point compact aimed to ‘ensure Ukraine can successfully defend its freedom, independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity today and deter acts of aggression in the future.’
The compact supports Ukraine’s immediate defence and security needs, accelerates efforts to build a future force that maintains a credible deterrence capability and makes provision to respond swiftly in the case of another Russian attack on Ukraine.
“Now we have a solid architecture of security guarantees,” said Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“I thank President Biden for his leadership and all the efforts to make our security cooperation full of strong actions. All of these helped us obtain the necessary air defence systems thanks to America and to all the partners, to all the leaders and your societies, your people, of course.”
But after introducing the compact, Biden introduced Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy as ‘President Putin’ to audible gasps in the room. He quickly returned to the microphone: “President Putin – he’s going to beat Putin,” Biden said, before adding, “I’m so focused on beating Putin,” in an effort to explain the gaffe.
French president Emmanuel Macron came to Biden’s defence, praising his “depth of field on international issues”.
“We all slip up sometimes. It’s happened to me. It’ll probably happen to me tomorrow. I would ask you for the same indulgence. It’s the kind of indulgence that’s needed between kind people,” he said.
Euronews
