Biden, who arrived in Britain on Wednesday evening, will hold a bilateral meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday and attend a three-day summit of the seven major industrial powers (G7) starting Friday in the small town of Karbis Bay in Cornwall. , South West England.
The group of weeks includes Canada, Japan, Germany, France and Italy, as well as the United States and Britain, which holds the rotating presidency of the organization.
The US President’s plane, Air Force One, landed at an air base near Mildenhall in southeast England on Wednesday evening. The base is owned by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) but is primarily used by the US Air Force.
After his arrival, Joe Biden – who will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week – said in a speech to US staff at the base that the US and Russia had an “incredible weight” of joint responsibilities to ensure military stability and maintain arms control. agreements.
The US president stressed that Washington is not seeking confrontation, but rather a stable and predictable relationship with Russia. He stressed, however, that if the Russian government “engaged in malicious acts,” the United States would provide a strong and meaningful response. Biden said he would tell the Russian head of state that there are “consequences” if someone violates the sovereignty of democratic countries. “I leave no doubt that the United States must stand up for its core values and interests” if necessary, the US president said.
He added that in his talks in Brussels next week, he will also make clear that the US commitment to NATO and Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty has been very solid. According to this article of the NATO Treaty, if any member state is attacked, then the alliance considers all member states to be under attack.
At the same time, the global fight against the coronavirus epidemic is high on the agenda of the G7 summit in England. Britain’s host Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, announced in advance that the summit will ask for concrete commitments from leaders of other G7 member states to help vaccinate the entire world’s population with coronavirus vaccines by the end of 2022.
According to the plans outlined above, Joe Biden will formally announce at the meeting that the US government will purchase 500 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and distribute these vaccines to countries in need.
Cover Photo: Getty Images
