Biden to meet NATO chief to discuss ‘challenges from Russia and China’: White House

US President Joe Biden will meet with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at the White House to discuss, among other things, how to reinforcing transatlantic security “in the face of challenges from Russia and China,” the White House said.

“They will also discuss adapting NATO to address threats like cyberattacks and climate change, while continuing to ensure a more equitable sharing of responsibility among allies,” Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Friday.

The meeting, which will be held on Monday ahead of the upcoming June 14 NATO summit in Brussels, comes against the backdrop of unprecedented tensions between the West and Russia over a range of issues, including developments in Ukraine, allegations of Russian interfering in US elections, and cyberwarfare.

After the NATO summit, Biden plans a face-to-face meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to be held in Geneva.

“The president expects to raise a number of issues, including Ukraine and what we’ve seen as aggressive behavior at the border by the Russians,” Psaki said.

Biden proposed the meeting in April, offering to meet Putin in a third country to discuss rising tensions between the two Cold War adversaries.

Bilateral relations hit a new low in March after Biden said in an interview that he believed Putin was a “killer” and that the Russian president would have to “pay a price” for interfering in the 2020 US presidential election.

In addition, Biden will also press Putin on recent cyberattacks that US officials have said originated from Russia, including the SolarWinds hack and recent ransomware incidents.

“We expect there to be challenging conversations moving forward, but it’s an opportunity to discuss areas where we have mutual interest like nuclear security and stability,” the White House spokesperson said.

The Kremlin earlier cautioned against “inflated expectations” about the upcoming meeting between the two leaders.

Russia warns against ‘inflated expectations’ from Putin-Biden meeting

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says one should not expect too much from the upcoming meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Joe Biden.

Afghanistan is also expected to be high on the agenda of Biden’s meeting with Stoltenberg as the United States and NATO have pledged to withdraw the remainder of their forces by September 11.

All international troops were supposed to have left Afghanistan by May 1, a deadline the US had agreed to in talks with the Taliban in Doha last year. Biden, however, pushed the date back to September 11 and there are concerns in the US and among some NATO allies that the Taliban would stage a more powerful comeback.

Stoltenberg, however, said earlier that the Afghan government and armed forces were strong enough to stand on their own feet without foreign troops backing them up. 

NATO chief: Afghan forces strong enough to stand on own feet

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says the Afghan government and armed forces are strong enough to stand on their own feet without foreign troops to back them.

The US has had 3,500 troops in Afghanistan and NATO about 7,000.

While in Europe, Biden will also meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the White House said.

Tensions have mounted between the US and Turkey, a NATO ally, after Biden declared the mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire more than a century ago as genocide. The unprecedented declaration infuriated Ankara, which sees it as politically motivated. 

Turkey acknowledges that many Armenians were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during the Great War, but denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated.

Ahead of Biden meeting, Erdogan warns US could lose 'reliable partner by cornering Turkey'

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warns US against "cornering" Turkey.

The White House also revealed other details of Biden's first overseas trip as president, which begins next week, including a meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on June 10 ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall, the United Kingdom.

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