Biden guarantees US support for Nato as he meets Nordic leaders

US President backs military alliance during joint press conference in Helsinki with Finnish leader

From left, Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, US President Joe Biden, Finland's President Sauli Niinisto, Iceland's Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir and Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store pose for a photo of the US-Nordic Leaders' Summit. AFPShow less

US President Joe Biden stood alongside Nordic politicians on Thursday on the territory of Nato's newest member, Finland, in a powerful demonstration of the military alliance's expanding influence against Russia.

Mr Biden also met the leaders of other nations including Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland during the summit.

Sweden is poised to be admitted as Nato's 32nd member after it pledged more co-operation with Turkey on counter-terrorism efforts while backing Ankara’s bid to join the EU. Finland gained Nato membership earlier this year.

Mr Biden described the US-Nordic summit as “very productive” and vowed to protect every inch of Nato territory including Finland during a joint press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto at the Presidential Palace.

“The United States is committed to Finland, committed to Nato, and those commitments are rock solid,” Mr Biden said.

Washington's commitment to Nato is “absolutely guaranteed” despite pushback from “extreme” elements in the Republican Party, he added.

He also pledged that Ukraine would join Nato once the current conflict is over, but said to do so now would risk the possibility of a third world war.

“It's not about whether or not they should or shouldn't join. It's about when they can join, and they will join Nato,” he said.

He also reiterated his belief that Russian President Vladimir Putin had already lost the war and would eventually decide it is not in Moscow's interest to continue, as it is running low on financial and economic resources.

Both Finland and Sweden abandoned a history of military non-alignment and sought to join Nato after Russia invaded Ukraine last year.

Mr Biden's brief stop in the Finnish capital is the coda to a tour that was carefully planned to highlight the growth of a military alliance that the President says has been fortified since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference with Finland's President Sauli Niinisto at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki. AP

Finland's admittance to Nato effectively doubled the alliance’s border with Russia.

Mr Biden arrived in Helsinki after what he deemed a successful Nato summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, where allies agreed to pave the way for Ukraine to become a future member.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the summit's outcome “a significant security victory” for his country but expressed disappointment at not receiving an outright invitation to join.

The US President and other officials also held what aides called pivotal conversations with Turkey before Ankara dropped its objections to Sweden joining Nato. Mr Biden said he felt good about the trip.

“We accomplished every goal we set out to accomplish,” he told reporters Wednesday before the flight to Finland.

And despite Mr Zelenskyy's expressed frustrations, Mr Biden – who met the Ukrainian leader on Wednesday in Vilnius – said on Thursday that the Ukrainian President “ended up being very happy”.

Mr Biden’s trip took place nearly five years to the day since former president Donald Trump stood alongside Mr Putin in Helsinki and cast doubt on his own intelligence apparatus.

That was days after Mr Trump tore through a Nato summit during which he disparaged the alliance and threatened to withdraw the US from it.

In contrast, Mr Biden has heartily embraced the tenets of multilateralism that Mr Trump shunned, speaking repeatedly of having to rebuild international coalitions after four tumultuous years under his predecessor.

US President Joe Biden and Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. Reuters

The garrulous former Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman is in his element at summits abroad and speaks of how his background in international policy is proof that decades of experience on the world stage has mattered for the presidency.

Opening the broader meeting, Mr Niinisto said his Nordic counterparts had one overriding objective: “guarantee the future – security-wise, environmental-wise and technology-wise”.

Mr Biden added that the “nations around the table not only share common history, but we share common challenges, and I would add presumptuously, common values”.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who saw Mr Biden in the Oval Office last week, lightheartedly remarked to the US leader that “I have met you more than I’ve met my own family”.

Mr Biden is the sixth US president to visit Finland, a country of 5.5 million that has hosted several US-Soviet and US-Russia summits. The first involved President Gerald Ford, who would sign the so-called Helsinki Accords with more than 30 other nations in 1975.

But Charly Salonius-Pasternak, senior researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, noted that Mr Biden's visit marked the first time a sitting US president has come to Finland to honour the country itself, rather than as a neutral location for meeting Russian leaders or other similar reasons.

“The fact that Biden has chosen to go specifically to Finland for Finland is symbolic and, in some ways, very concrete,” he said. “It’s a kind of deterrence messaging that only the United States can do.”

In the Cold War era, Finland acted as a neutral buffer between Moscow and Washington, and its leaders played a balancing act between the East and West, maintaining good relations with both superpowers and remaining militarily non-aligned, though this has changed significantly since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.