Joe Biden will travel from the G7 summit in Bavaria to join leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Madrid while the West continues to respond to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. But a former NATO assistant secretary-general has claimed that the 46th president will face a major test when he hits the Spanish capital on Tuesday.
Marshall Billingslea, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former president of the Financial Action Task Force under Donald Trump, told Fox News Digital: “This NATO summit is a crucial test for Biden’s leadership.
“First and foremost, he must pave the way for Finnish and Swedish membership by mediating an agreement with Turkey.
“Secondly, he needs to get countries to supply significant additional heavy weapons to Ukraine, especially Germany, which has largely only paid lip service to military aid.”
He added: “Thirdly, he must shift the alliance from his reactive position to one with forces that will be permanently based in the Baltic countries.
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“Whether he can deliver any of this is an open question.
“One last one he needs to answer with his NATO counterparts is how tough will the new Strategic Draft be regarding Communist China?”
Washington is widely regarded as the leading partner in the 30-strong NATO group.
However, according to a G7 survey conducted for the Munich Security Conference, the UK is just ahead of the US in its net rating in dealing with the Ukraine crisis.
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The POTUS said on Twitter: “As demonstrated at the G7 summit, the US will continue to work with our allies and partners to hold Russia accountable for such atrocities and to support Ukraine’s defense.”
Mr Biden added: “Together, the G7 will make a steadfast, united commitment to support Ukraine and build on our unprecedented sanctions to hold President Putin accountable, which will only worsen over time to further isolate Russia from the world economy. “
The US and G7 have unveiled a five-phase plan to provide further support to Ukraine, including measures to target Russian military production and use tariffs on goods from the Kremlin to help Ukraine.