Joe Biden says NATO is “more powerful than ever” – DW – 07/10/2024

The President of the United States, Joe Biden, said this Tuesday (07/09/2024), in the celebration of NATO’s 75th anniversary, that the military Atlantic alliance is “more powerful than ever”.

“Today, NATO is more powerful than ever, with a strength of 32 nations,” Biden said at the commemoration ceremony at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in the US capital.

The leaders of the alliance’s 32 members have gathered to celebrate the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty, which took place in the same auditorium on April 4, 1949.

Biden unexpectedly awarded the outgoing NATO secretary general, Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg, the country’s highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for his work to unite allies in the face of war in Ukraine.

At the conclusion of his commemorative speech, the US President praised the “extraordinary work” of Stoltenberg, whom he asked to step up to the podium to confer the decoration.

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“You did not hesitate when Russia’s war against Ukraine began, and today NATO is stronger, smarter and more dynamic than it was when you took office,” Biden said.

The president also highlighted Stoltenberg, who will step down in October after ten years as head of the coalition, to former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, as a “man of integrity and intellectual rigour.”

He said the Norwegian politician has a “calm demeanor in moments of crisis” and is a skilled diplomat who has the ability to work with leaders of different ideologies.

The US president also joked that he had asked Stoltenberg’s wife to extend his time as NATO secretary general, a position he assumed in 2014.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor given in the United States. Biden himself received it in 2017 from then-President Barack Obama in gratitude for his services as vice president.

MG (EFE, AP)