President Joe Biden is in Helsinki, Finland, Thursday, showcasing the country NATO sees as standing for a reinvigorated and expanding alliance in the face of Russian aggression.
Biden has just been to a high-profile NATO summit in nearby Lithuania, where much of the focus was on on Ukraine’s path to membership. However the United States and its allies touted Finland becoming the defense alliance’s newest member as one of the crowning achievements of the gathering.
The country shares an 830-mile border with Russia and had until recently maintained relatively cordial relations with Moscow. But it applied for entrance to NATO soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine last year.
On Wednesday evening, Biden pledged that Western partners would not back away from Ukraine’s defense despite having not agreed to a path or timeline for it to become a NATO member, which Kyiv desperately wants. At the end of the summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, Biden said that “the defense of freedom is not the work of a day or a year. It’s the calling of our lifetime — of all time.”
What to know about Biden’s Finland trip
- President Biden will meet with Finland’s president, Sauli Niinistö, and leaders from other Nordic nations including Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.
- Biden is scheduled to hold a joint press conference with Niinistö at 12:40 p.m. ET before departing the country.
- The president arrived in Helsinki after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the NATO summit’s outcome “a significant security victory” for his country but nonetheless expressed disappointment Kyiv did not get an outright invitation to join the alliance.
13m ago / 10:43 AM UTC
July 13, 202303:36
14m ago / 10:42 AM UTC
Erdogan expects NATO allies to lift restrictions on arms sales
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan has been quoted as saying that he expects NATO allies to lift sanctions and restrictions on the country’s defense industry.
Turkish ministers will hold more talks with American counterparts on the sale of F-16 fighter jets, Erdogan was quoted as telling reporters on a flight returning from the NATO summit in Lithuania.
Erdogan also said the European Union leaders he met had a positive stance about reviving Turkey’s accession bid.
“After the positive steps we see from the EU, we will start work on implementing the promises we have made,” Erdogan said, days after he unexpectedly agreed to send to parliament Sweden’s bid to join the alliance.
52m ago / 10:04 AM UTC
Photo: Coast guard patrol Helsinki harbor ahead of visit
52m ago / 10:03 AM UTC
The latest news from the war in Ukraine
Ukraine shot down some 20 Iranian-made Russian drones overnight but the shrapnel fell on the capital Kyiv, wounding two people and destroying homes, officials said. The latest attack began after midnight.
The Ukrainian military said it also intercepted two Russian cruise missiles. The statement said one ballistic missile was not intercepted, although it did not explain what damage the missile caused.
The government of the region of Khmelnytskyi in western Ukraine reported that a cruise missile was intercepted over the region, and reported no casualties. “We appreciate the meticulous work of Ukraine’s air defense forces,” the regional administration wrote on Telegram.
52m ago / 10:03 AM UTC
Photo: Presidential arrives in Helsinki
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
