In the wake of yet another mass shooting in the US—this one in Philadelphia last night—President Joe Biden will spend the next ten days focused on expanding NATO against Russia. It all starts tomorrow when Biden welcomes Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to the White House, an opportunity to reaffirm America’s enthusiastic support for bringing Stockholm into NATO “as soon as possible,” the White House said Saturday, the Washington Post reported yesterday.
On Sunday, Biden heads off to the UK to meet with King Charles and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. After that, he goes to Vilnius for the July 11-12 NATO summit and from there, on to Helsinki on July 13 for a Nordic summit.
The Post notes, however, one ripple in the agenda: Turkish opposition (and Hungarian opposition, too) to Sweden’s accession to the alliance. Will the Swedes join at the summit? “The president is very optimistic that they will, and we look forward to welcoming them into the alliance,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said June 26. “The conversations between Sweden and Turkey continue. We encourage that dialogue.”
Other items on the agenda include upping support to the Kiev regime and the commitment by all allies to spend at least two percent of GDP on defense, which the alliance will agree to make “a floor, not a ceiling.”
