London, Vilnius and Helsinki on Joe Biden’s program

(Washington) President Joe Biden will fly to Europe on Sunday, where he will stay in three countries to consolidate alliances tested by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

After arriving in London overnight, Mr Biden will meet King Charles III the next day for the first time since his coronation. The NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania will be the centerpiece of the trip. Alliance leaders will discuss war and revise their plans to deal with Russian aggression.

The last stop will be Helsinki, where Joe Biden is expected to celebrate the enlargement of the Alliance on Thursday, with Finland as a new NATO member.

His national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the trip would “showcase the president’s leadership on the international stage.”

Here’s a look at Mr. Biden’s agenda and the challenges he will face.

London

Mr Biden will arrive in London on Sunday evening and is expected to have a busy schedule of meetings on Monday.

“There’s always a lot to discuss with the UK,” said Max Bergmann, a former State Department official who heads the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Mr Biden will meet Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at 10 Downing Street. Mr Sunak faces an election by the end of next year. His political party, the Conservative Party, is lagging behind the opposition in opinion polls.

Despite Mr. Sunak’s precarious political situation, he has maintained close ties with President Biden. This will be their sixth meeting since the British Prime Minister took office last October.

Mr Bergmann said Mr Sunak’s tenure had been a pleasant change of pace after “some concerns about Boris Johnson”, one of Mr Sunak’s predecessors, “who was a free spirit”.

Mr Biden will visit the King at Windsor Castle, a royal residence outside London. Mr Biden did not attend Charles’ coronation – first lady Jill Biden replaced him. This will be their first meeting since.

They are expected to discuss climate change, a topic that has captured the attention of both leaders, and how to fund initiatives to address this issue.

Vilnius

Mr Biden will spend two days in the Lithuanian capital, where the annual NATO summit will take place. He will participate in meetings with leaders and deliver a speech from Vilnius University.

The Alliance was reinvigorated by the war in Ukraine, and members poured military hardware into the country to help repel the Russian invasion.

For Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the summit “will send a clear message: NATO remains united and Russia’s aggression will not pay”.

The US president on Friday defended what he called a “difficult decision” to supply cluster munitions to Ukraine.

Mr Biden is likely to face questions from allies about why the United States would send a weapon to Ukraine that more than two-thirds of NATO members have banned because it has caused widespread civilian casualties.

A move that his administration said was key to the fight and backed by Ukraine’s pledge to use the controversial bombs carefully.

NATO has also struggled to bridge divisions on important issues. Finland was welcomed into the Alliance this year, but Sweden’s membership was blocked by Turkey and Hungary.

There are also disagreements over how quickly to invite Ukraine to join NATO. Countries on NATO’s eastern flank want to act quickly, seeing it as a way to deter Russian aggression. The United States and others advocate a more cautious approach.

One question has already been settled, at least for now. Mr. Stoltenberg’s term was extended for a year because the members could not agree on a new leader.

Senator Thom Tillis, who will attend the summit, likened the Alliance to a gathering of dozens of family members who bicker and clash, but remain united nonetheless.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen for her part said that NATO is more powerful than before.

helsinki

After two nights in Vilnius, Mr. Biden will travel to Helsinki. The stoppage is a bit of a victory lap, but could also be a reminder of unfinished business.

The Nordic country became in April the 31^e member of NATO, ending its history of non-alignment and demonstrating how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine backfired on Europe.

Finland was supposed to join alongside neighbor Sweden, whose admission has stalled. NATO requires the unanimous consent of all its members to expand, and the United States has been unable to overcome objections from Turkey and Hungary.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson visited the White House on Wednesday and met with Biden to keep up the pressure for membership. But there is little hope that the problem will be solved in Vilnius.

The White House calls Biden’s visit to Helsinki a “Nordic-American Leaders’ Summit.”

It is a very different occasion from the last time a US president visited Helsinki five years ago.

During that trip, former President Donald Trump held a press conference with Vladimir Putin and brushed aside concerns about Russian interference in his election victory.

Now Mr. Biden is heading to the city to demonstrate how his administration has held the line against Moscow and expanded Western defenses.

With Lorne Cook of the Associated Press in Brussels