Biden Visits Newest NATO Member Finland

President Biden arrived in Finland for a U.S.-Nordic Leaders Summit, his final stop on a three-nation European tour that included a Ukraine-focussed NATO summit in Lithuania.

Air Force One landed in Finland Wednesday night, having taken President Biden from Lithuania, where he has spent the past two days attending the annual NATO summit in Vilnius. The Lithuanian capital is less than an hour’s drive from the Western border of Belarus, Russia’s greatest European ally, and both Lithuania and Finland have major land borders with Russia.

Finland is the latest member of the NATO alliance, having joined in April this year following a brisk accession process following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Traditionally neutral, both Finland and Sweden abandoned that historic position on the back of Russia’s aggressive behaviour.

Sweden’s membership has been held up by disagreements with Turkey, and to a lesser extent Hungary, but those disagreements suddenly vanished as NATO members prepared to meet this week. Presuming there are no other roadblocks, it is quite possible Sweden will be a NATO member this year.

Today, U.S. President Biden will attend the U.S.-Nordic Leaders Summit with Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, and Finland in Helsinki after a private meeting with the Finnish President, part of a process of welcoming the nation to NATO. Per VOA, on the table for discussion today with the Nordic leaders is “climate change, security cooperation and emerging technologies”. The last U.S.-Nordic Leaders Summit took place in Washington D.C. in 2016.

Biden is expected to go directly to the airport to fly back to the United States when his meetings finish at the Finnish Presidential Palace this evening.