The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Thursday defended US President Joe Biden following his embarrassing gaffe during the NATO summit in Washington.
During the press conference, President Biden had made a notable error when he introduced the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as Russian President Vladimir Putin without realizing it.
Biden accidentally said, “And now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination, ladies and gentlemen, President Putin.”
But Biden quickly corrected himself, though not before journalists snapped pictures of the moment which raised questions about this.
In response to questioning about a former US president’s blunder Nato was quick to defend him saying it was only ‘a slip of tongue.’
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended his American counterpart: ‘Slips of tongue happen, and if you always monitor everyone, you will find enough of them,’ Scholz said. “But this does not change a single thing of what the US president stated very clearly in his speech.”
After German chancellor, French President Emmanuel Macron also backed US president and said that the slip of tongue happens.
“We all slip up sometimes,” Macron said. “It’s happened to me and it could happen again tomorrow. I would ask for your indulgence,” Reuters reported.
Macron also said that on top of things is “in charge” at a Nato Summit with other leaders in Washington DC.
“I was able to talk with President Biden at length yesterday at dinner,” Macron told reporters. “I saw as always a president who is in charge, clear on the issues he knows well.”
Meanwhile newly elected UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer denied allegations that senility compromises Mr. Bidden’s leadership capacity pointing out that they spent more than an hour together covering wide grounds in their discussions in Oval Office prior to the gaffes at summit.
“He was on good form,” Starmer told British media, according to the Reuters.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, who had forged close ties with US former President Donald Trump but has appreciated Biden’s support for Ukraine, told reporters: “I talked with President Biden, and there is no doubt that everything is ok.”
Finnish President Alexander Stubb, queried on whether he feared for the United States said that in democracies “there’s always turmoil before elections?”
“I have absolutely no concern about the capacity of the current president of the United States to lead his country and to lead our fight for Ukraine and to lead NATO,” he said.
“The only thing I’m worried about is that the political climate in the United States right now is too toxic, is very polarized, and that doesn’t leave enough room for a civilized and constructive debate” on policy, he told reporters.
