The president made a series of verbal slips on the world stage, most recently when discussing America’s stance on Taiwan, raising questions about a sharp shift in US foreign policy, only for the White House to back off. The latest blunder was immediately ridiculed by Republicans, who claimed the 79-year-old was unfit to be the leader of the free world. Mr Biden, meanwhile, said Americans should be prepared to pay “as much as they need” for high-priced petrol prices to prevent Russia from defeating Ukraine. In a surprise concession, the president acknowledged that he could do little to protect Americans from the rising cost of living that could cost his party control of Congress in November. Mr Biden suggested that financial pain was an inevitable cost in preventing Vladimir Putin’s war from moving “beyond Ukraine”. Ready allies for a protracted conflict, he said: “We will support Ukraine for as long as it takes.” The three-day summit showed NATO relocating to Cold War bases with a massive build-up of forces. Mr Biden said he was “gathering the world” behind it as he announced another $ 800 million in US military aid to Ukraine’s days. The package includes air defense systems, artillery and ammunition, with a remarkable focus on the lethal and extremely accurate system of high mobility artillery missiles (HIMARS). Biden had earlier pledged more US troops, warplanes and warships to Europe as NATO agreed to step up its deterrents, putting more than 300,000 troops on alert by mid-next year. Boris Johnson pledged an additional 1 1 billion in military aid, raising British support since the start of the war to more than 2, 2.3 billion, second only to Washington. In response, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said a new “iron curtain” was falling between Russia and the West. “As far as the iron curtain is concerned, it is actually already coming down,” he told reporters, adding that Moscow would not trust Washington and Brussels “from now on.” “They just have to be careful not to bite anything,” he warned. The three-day NATO summit marked a successful European trip for Biden, which saw Turkey withdraw its opposition to Finland and Sweden’s accession to the 30-member alliance. If the membership is approved as expected, it will give NATO a new 800-mile border with Russia. Mr Biden said the development showed that the Russian president had achieved the opposite of his goal when he started the war, in part to counter NATO expansion. “Putin wanted NATO Finland, he got Finland NATO NATO,” he said ironically. Putin warned that Moscow would “respond with the same kind” if NATO troops were deployed on its borders.
