Joe Biden called on Thursday to maintain the “sacred commitment” of the United States to NATO, against a backdrop of recurring criticism from his Republican rival Donald Trump against the transatlantic defense alliance.
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“We must remember that the sacred commitment we make to our allies, to defend every inch of NATO territory, also strengthens our own security and gives the United States a bulwark that has no equivalent in the world,” wrote the American president in a press release published on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
NATO “is the largest military alliance that has ever existed. But it did not happen by accident and it was not a foregone conclusion either,” said the 81-year-old Democrat, who will run for a new term in November.
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Facing him, he will find Donald Trump. The 77-year-old Republican magnate sowed panic in Europe when he threatened in February to no longer guarantee the protection of NATO countries against Russia if they did not devote a sufficient budget to their defense.
He then assured that these comments were a way of “negotiating” and putting pressure on the Europeans.
“Don’t forget that all this is more important for them than for us, we have an ocean that separates us from certain problems,” he said recently. “A big, beautiful ocean.”
Joe Biden, on the contrary, presents himself as the first defender of NATO, and as the one who contributed to strengthening the alliance with the entry of Finland and Sweden.
