WASHINGTON (CN) — President Joe Biden has spent the last four years reasserting the United States as a reliable partner on the global stage, particularly in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022, in stark contrast from his predecessor, Donald Trump.
Those efforts were placed in the spotlight this week, as Biden met with fellow members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during its annual summit in Washington this week for the alliance’s 75th anniversary.
Biden capped the summit with a lengthy press conference on Thursday, a moment widely viewed as consequential for his candidacy while he staves off questions surrounding his candidacy following a poor debate performance against Trump.
“I beat him once, and I’ll beat him again,” Biden said in response to a question about the growing calls for him to step down and potentially allow Vice President Kamala Harris — who he called “Vice President Trump” — to run in his stead.
He drew a comparison between his support for Ukraine and Trump’s relationship with Putin, including his reported comments that Putin could “do whatever the hell he wants” to certain NATO nations who don’t meet their spending obligations.
“I made it clear that I will not bow down to Putin, I will not walk away from Ukraine,” Biden said. “I will keep NATO strong. That’s exactly what we’ll continue to do.”
However, beyond his reelection bid, his performance was also closely watched by international allies to better understand what sort of partner NATO would have as it deals with the grueling war in Ukraine and potential challenges with nations like China, Iran and North Korea.
Experts noted that the outsized attention on Biden’s age — 81 years old — has taken away from the primary purpose of the summit: to issue a rebuke against the deep relationship between China and Russia.
During Thursday’s press conference, Biden address a NATO declaration issued Wednesday, in which leaders from the 32 member states referred to China as a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war. He said that he has a direct line to Chinese President Xi Jinping and will make him aware of the consequences.
“We have to make sure that Xi understands that there’s a price to pay for undercutting both the Pacific Basin as well as Europe,” Biden said Thursday.
Kristine Berzina, managing director of the George Marshall Fund Geostrategy North, said in an interview with Courthouse News that while international allies have concerns about a likely tumultuous second Trump term, a continuation of Biden’s “excessive caution” in supplying weapons to Ukraine would still frustrate European allies.
Berzina highlighted the Biden administration policy to permit Ukraine fire weapons into Russian territory only to hit back against Russian forces that are attacking or preparing to attack. The policy stems from concerns that broader use of American-made weapons will escalate the war.
“If these restrictions had been done away with years ago and Ukrainians had the equipment, the variety of tools and the freedoms that they have right now, they would be in a far safer place,” Berzina said.
Those restrictions include requirement that Ukraine may only use American weapons to strike Russian territory within 100 kilometer of the Ukrainian border.
Berzina pointed out that the plane that launched several missile strikes on Monday in central and eastern Ukraine, including on a children’s hospital in Kyiv, took off from a Russian airfield outside of that radius.
David Super, professor of law at Georgetown University, said in an interview with Courthouse News that by keeping the weapon limits in place, Biden is severely hampering Ukraine’s ability to stand on its own if Trump were to take back the White House.
“This slow drip of empowering Ukraine might make sense if it was going to be the policy indefinitely, but with the prospect of Trump coming in and being much more pro-Putin, it necessarily is going to cause people to question American leadership,” Super said.
While Biden has extensive foreign affairs experience during his time in the Senate and Vice President, Super noted, it appears as though he has become entrenched in his previous ways of thinking.
“He has not done as well as one might wish at updating his thinking, on some areas he has, but I think a lot of his instincts are from a bipolar world where he’s facing the Soviet Union, and Russia is not the Soviet Union and we’re not in a bipolar world,” Super said.
During his Thursday evening press conference, Biden defended the weapon restrictions as the best use of the weaponry provided to Ukraine and that the decision is based on advice from his military advisers. He made no indication he would release the restrictions.
Earlier on Thursday, Biden announced a new $225 million aid package for Ukraine, including a Patriot missile system, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, more 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds, among others.
That deal, announced during a joint meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in addition to an announcement Biden made Tuesday night. As part of that deal the U.S., Germany and Romania would provide Patriot batteries, while the Netherlands and Italy would provide additional components and systems.
During a later event Thursday, Biden mistakenly introduced Zelenskyy as Russian President Vladimir Putin, before correcting himself to clarify, “no, we’re going to beat Putin.”
Biden defended his slip-up during Thursday night’s press conference, lauding the summit as a “successful conference.”