By Robert Greenall, BBC Information
Western leaders have rallied spherical Joe Biden on the Nato summit, amid considerations in regards to the US president’s age and talent to serve one other time period.
Calls are rising for Mr Biden to drop out of the presidential race this November, and his makes an attempt to decrease fears about his re-election bid on the summit have been marred by two severe gaffes.
French President Emmanuel Macron mentioned Mr Biden was “in cost” and “clear on the problems he is aware of properly”, whereas UK PM Sir Keir Starmer mentioned he was “on good type”.
However Mr Biden’s first gaffe, wherein he launched Ukrainian chief Volodymyr Zelensky as President Putin, was ridiculed within the Russian media.
And later in a information convention – Mr Biden’s first unscripted public look because the debate – he referred to his “Vice-President Trump” when which means to say Kamala Harris.
The US president has been beneath stress to give up since a disastrous efficiency two weeks in the past in a debate along with his Republican rival within the upcoming elections, Donald Trump.
However all through the summit, different Nato leaders have defended him and his means to steer.
Mr Macron, talking after Thursday’s White Home dinner, mentioned he had had an extended dialogue with Mr Biden through the meal, and appealed for understanding of his flaws.
“I noticed him as at all times a president who’s in cost, clear on the problems he is aware of properly,” he mentioned.
“All of us make slips of the tongue typically. It has occurred to me earlier than, it is going to in all probability occur to me tomorrow.
“I’d ask you to indicate the identical leniency that ought to be proven between caring individuals.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz additionally addressed the gaffes.
“Slips of the tongue occur, and in case you at all times monitor everybody, you will see sufficient of them,” he mentioned.
ReutersUK Prime Minister Sir Keir mentioned repeatedly through the summit that the US president had achieved a lot to be happy with there, and was “throughout all of the element”.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mentioned it was a privilege and a pleasure to work with Mr Biden.
“[Biden’s] depth of expertise, his thoughtfulness, his steadfastness on the best points and challenges of our time is a credit score to the work that we’re all doing collectively,” he mentioned, quoted by CBC.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, seen as being near former President Trump, mentioned, quoted by AFP: “I talked with President Biden, and there’s no doubt that all the things is okay.”
In the meantime Finnish President Alexander Stubb mixed a defence of Mr Biden with fears in regards to the ambiance within the US elections.
“I’ve completely no concern in regards to the capability of the present president of the USA to steer his nation and to steer our combat for Ukraine and to steer Nato,” he mentioned, quoted by AFP.
“The one factor I am nervous about is that the political local weather in the USA proper now’s too poisonous, could be very polarised, and that does not depart sufficient room for a civilised and constructive debate.”
But when leaders of allied international locations have been unwilling to criticise the US president for his frailties, Moscow has been equally restrained.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned the gaffes have been clearly slips of the tongue and “not our enterprise, an inside matter for the USA”.
Not so the Russian media, which have been throughout Mr Biden’s confusion of Mr Putin with Mr Zelensky.
Official Rossiya TV confirmed it on the prime of its 9pm bulletin, saying that “America’s vassals pretended that they’d not observed something”.
NTV mentioned Biden had by no means been so near a fiasco and that his “newest slip of the tongue is worthy of an Oscar”.
And in style every day Moskovsky Komsomolets ran an article headlined “Senile Leaders”, evaluating Joe Biden to the aged Communist leaders of the USSR.
“What’s extra harmful, a monkey with a grenade or a shaking hand on the nuclear button?” it requested.
Further reporting by Vitaliy Shevchenko