President Joe Biden told a Finnish reporter who questioned him at a press conference in Helsinki she might not make it home that night.
Biden was reflecting on uncertainty and his sense of fatalism while fielding a question about NATO‘s newest member, which sits just 70 miles from Russia and has now joined the powerful alliance amid a war raging in Europe.
‘We will stand together,’ he said alongside Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, after Finland rushed to join the alliance after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, being admitted in April.
‘No one can guarantee the future. But this is the best bet anyone can make,’ he qualified.
Biden returned to his statement of mutual commitment and collective defense, which is enshrined in the NATO Charter, even after he had finished answering the question – about whether U.S. political divisions in the U.S. might in the future undermine whatever commitments Biden makes.
‘No one can guarantee the future,’ President Joe Biden said in Helsinki while providing assurances that Finland would be protected now that it is part of NATO
‘Let me be clear, I didn’t say we didn’t …we couldn’t guarantee the future. You can’t tell me whether you’re going to be able to go home tonight. No one can be sure what you’re going to do,’ Biden said.
‘I’m saying as sure as anything could possibly be said about American foreign policy, we will stay connected to NATO, connected to NATO beginning middle and end. We’re a a transatlantic partnership.’
When he was done, the Finnish president appended: ‘It seems the President has solved your problems.’
Biden had earlier stated that ‘the United States is committed to Finland, committed to NATO and those commitments are rock solid.’
He vowed to protect ‘every inch of NATO territory, and that includes Finland, obviously,’ he said.
President Biden told a Finnish reporter she might not make it home tonight, when asked about the nature of guarantees for Finland’s security
Iceland’s Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir (L) listens to Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store during the US-Nordic Leaders’ Summit. Biden corrected himself after mentioning the head of Ireland instead of Iceland
Biden vowed to protect ‘every inch’ of NATO territory, including that of Finland, it’s newest member
Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, US President Joe Biden, Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto and Iceland’s Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir react during a family photo session of the US-Nordic Leaders’ Summit Meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, 13 July 2023. The Nordic leaders are working on mutual security guarantees
Russian President Vladimir Putin came up during the presser, but neither later referred to him by name
Biden spoke to a child as he left Finland en route to the U.S.
The assurances came during a press conference that featured mutual compliments, but where Biden had to ask for questions to be repeated. He also had to correct himself after accidentally referring to the head of Ireland instead of the head of Iceland, having met with a group of Nordic nations.
‘You can tell that’s a Freudian slip. I’m thinking of “home,”‘ he said.
It all took place in in the same room in the presidential palace where former President Donald Trump appeared to side with Vladimir Putin in 2018 and accepted assurances from the Russian leader that he hadn’t interfered in the 2016 elections.
Biden also expressed ‘unwavering support’ to the ‘brave people of Ukraine,’ after coming from a NATO summit in Vilnius where Ukraine got new assurances about joining NATO but not the timeline for getting invited that President Volodymyr Zelensky sought.
He said he didn’t think Russia’s war could ‘go on for years,’ or that Russia could maintain it forever due to limited ‘resources capacity.’
Russia has been riding out western sanctions, but has experienced apparent issues with arms ammunition, and troops who are getting sacrificed in the ‘meat grinder’ of the Ukraine invasion.
Later, in response to a U.S. question, Biden revealed during his answer to a question about Russian President Vladimir Putin that the U.S. does not know with certainty the location of mutineer Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner private military boss who led a column toward Moscow only to make a deal and back off.
The event came in the same hall where Donald Trump spoke with Vladimir Putin. Trump appeared to accept Russian President Vladimir Putin’s denials of election interference during their appearance in 2018. The meeting came four years after Russia invaded Crimea and four years before it’s massive invasion of Ukraine
He was asked about the reemergence of the Russian military chief of staff Valery Gerasimov, amid scrutiny of how Putin will respond to the threat against his leadership and his top commanders.
‘God only knows what he’s likely to do,’ Biden said. ‘We’re not even sure where he is and what relationship he has,’ he said of Prigozhin, who cut a deal for sanctuary in Belarus, but who according to the Kremlin met with Putin there.
‘If I were him I’d be careful what I ate and keep my eye on the menu,’ Biden said, in his second bit of dark humor of the press event.
In response to a question about Russian interference in U.S. elections, he said, They’re already interfering. That would not be anything new.’
It was as close as he got to referencing the 2018 Trump-Putin presser here, where Trump accepted Putin’s denials of interfering in the 2016 elections.
On fears a weakened Putin could lash out with nuclear weapons, Biden said, ‘I don’t think there’s any real prospect. You never know of Putin using nuclear weapons.’
Neither man referred to Putin by his name. The Finnish president called him ‘our neighbor.’ Biden called him ‘the gentleman who occupies a seat the other side of the border in Moscow.’
