President Biden announced on Thursday that he had called on the Swiss leader to discuss abandoning two centuries of neutrality to join NATO – before quickly correcting himself by saying he really meant Sweden. “Someone in the American press will remember when I received a phone call from the leader of Finland saying that he could come and see me, then he came the next day and said, ‘Will you support my membership – my country’s accession to NATO? ” We got the phone. “He suggested we call on the Swiss leader,” Biden said. The president immediately corrected his mistake, adding: “Switzerland, my God, I am very worried here about the expansion of NATO – Sweden”. Biden was speaking at a news conference in Madrid following a NATO summit in which Finland and Sweden were formally invited to join the military alliance in response to Russia’s more than four-month-old invasion of Ukraine. Sweden was neutral in the various military engagements in Europe since the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s, during which it lost control of Finland to Russia. “Switzerland, my God, I’m very worried here about NATO enlargement,” said President Biden, before being corrected. NATO.Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty ImagesLast month, President Biden mispronounced North Korea when he wanted to say South Korea.Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images Finland was neutral since World War II, when it lost a significant portion of its territory to the Soviet Union. Biden, who turns 80 this year, has confused the names of countries in the past. Last month, he mistakenly said “North Korea” when he wanted to say “South Korea” as he listed supporters of US sanctions against Russia. Last year, he confused Libya and Syria by talking about possible areas of cooperation with Russia. The addition of Finland and Sweden raises the number of nations in NATO to 32, after Turkey withdrew its objections to the membership of the Nordic countries in the bloc.
