US President Joe Biden arrives in Finland for talks

US President Joe Biden arrived in Finland on Wednesday following a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. He is set to meet Finnish President Sauli Niinisto alongside other Nordic leaders. 

These include Sweden’s Ulf Kristersson, Norway’s Jonas Gahr Store, Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, and Iceland’s Katrin Jakobsdottir.

Finland, which shares a border with Russia of over 1,300 kilometres, ended its historic military non-alignment to enter NATO as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Biden will be the first US president to visit Helsinki since Donald Trump’s summit five years ago with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Talks will focus on cooperation between the Nordic countries and the United States on security, environmental, and technology issues.

Finland will be Biden’s final stop on his European tour before returning to Washington on Thursday.

In Vilnius, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suddenly reversed his stance on Sweden’s NATO membership, after blocking the bid for more than a year and accusing Stockholm of harbouring Kurdish activists Ankara regards as terrorists.

The deal on Sweden followed a call with US President Joe Biden during which Erdogan raised both EU accession and Turkey’s desire to acquire a large batch of F-16 fighter jets.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and G7 leaders at this year’s NATO summit, thanking the military alliance for its support.

He declared the pivotal meeting “an important victory” for his country’s security.

Zelenskyy’s upbeat remarks came after the NATO allies declined to commit to a timeline for Ukraine’s accession.

However, steps were made to formalise security guarantees and assurances from major leaders including President Biden that “Ukraine’s future is in NATO”.