Biden to visit Europe for G7, NATO summits: WH
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US President Joe Biden will be heading to Europe to attend NATO and G7 summits as tensions flare up between the alliances and Russia over several issues.
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US President Joe Biden descending from Air Force One
US President Joe Biden will head to Germany and Spain from June 25 to 28 for G7 and NATO summits, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday.
"President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. will travel to Schloss Elmau in southern Germany on June 25 to attend the G7 Leaders’ Summit," she revealed.
According to Jean-Pierre, Biden and his G7 counterparts will discuss a wide array of global issues that she claimed were "the most pressing", which include G7 support for Ukraine, economic and democratic resilience, the climate crisis, the development of infrastructure, global health, and the ongoing energy and food crisis.
The G7 countries had held their last meeting in Germany last month, where they discussed the Ukraine war, China, and the situation in the Indo-Pacific region, Afghanistan, Africa, and West Asia.
Though the spokesperson attributed the food and energy crisis to "Russia's war of aggression", the crisis began emerging following the Western sanctions imposed on Russia, which drove Moscow out of the energy market and surged energy prices all over the world, driving up the record inflation in the United States.
Tensions between the West on one end and China and Russia on the other have been spiraling as of late due to pre-existing economic strains between Beijing and Washington, in addition to the war in Ukraine and China refusing to impose sanctions on Russia over the crisis.
The spokesperson also revealed that Biden will attend the NATO summit in Madrid, where she said allied leaders would endorse a new Strategic Concept that will guide NATO's transformation over the next decade.
The visit to Europe comes amid a heavy onslaught of sanctions from the US and the majority of the continent against Russia in light of the Ukraine war. The NATO summit, on the other hand, comes as the alliance is trying to grant accession to Finland and Sweden, which has been blocked by Turkey.
Ankara's stance on Kurdish armed groups in Syria has soured relations with Finland and Sweden, as they refuse to brand the PKK as a terrorist group.
President Erdogan is currently trying to pressure both countries into branding the PKK as terrorists in exchange for their accession to NATO.
