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Switzerland NATO candidate? Biden causes confusion with another slip of the tongue - "My God..."

2022-06-30T20:27:38.237Z


Switzerland NATO candidate? Biden causes confusion with another slip of the tongue - "My God..." Created: 06/30/2022Updated: 06/30/2022 10:21 p.m By: Bettina Menzel US President Joe Biden during a press conference Thursday (June 30) as part of the NATO summit in Madrid. © IMAGO/Jakub Porzycki Joe Biden briefly made Switzerland a candidate for NATO membership on Thursday - and then took the fau


Switzerland NATO candidate?

Biden causes confusion with another slip of the tongue - "My God..."

Created: 06/30/2022Updated: 06/30/2022 10:21 p.m

By: Bettina Menzel

US President Joe Biden during a press conference Thursday (June 30) as part of the NATO summit in Madrid.

© IMAGO/Jakub Porzycki

Joe Biden briefly made Switzerland a candidate for NATO membership on Thursday - and then took the faux pas with humor.

The US President joked that he obviously had a great desire to expand NATO.

Madrid - In diplomacy, every word counts.

A slip of the tongue can quickly cause international upheaval - or paint a worldview that looks like science fiction.

This is what happened on Thursday at the NATO summit.

US President Joe Biden held a press conference in Madrid and spoke of Switzerland as a candidate for NATO membership.

NATO summit: This is how Switzerland briefly became a candidate for NATO membership

Switzerland, which is very concerned about its neutrality, briefly became a candidate for membership of the military alliance at the NATO summit in Madrid: US President Joe Biden spoke at a press conference on Thursday about how the historic decision to join Finland and Sweden in NATO came about record.

In one situation, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö suggested "calling the Swiss head of government about her accession aspirations," Biden said.

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The US President immediately noticed his slip of the tongue.

"Switzerland, my God... I'm obviously very keen on expanding NATO," he joked, adding that of course he meant to say "Sweden."

After decades of alliance neutrality, Finland and Sweden had broken with this tradition in the face of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and made efforts to be admitted to NATO.

Switzerland's accession, on the other hand, is considered diplomatic science fiction.

"Switzerland instead of Sweden" at the NATO summit: Biden slip of the tongue not an isolated case

"Switzerland instead of Sweden" was by no means the first slip of the tongue by US President Joe Biden.

In his more than 50-year career, there have already been small slips of the tongue, but also verbal gaffes.

Most recently, Biden caused a genuine diplomatic crisis when he uttered the words “For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power” about Vladimir Putin.

The statement "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power" was interpreted as a call to overthrow Putin.

Senior White House officials tried to calm things down, emphasizing that it was not about Putin's power in Russia or an overthrow of the government.

In March, Biden called the Russian president a "butcher," "war criminal," and "murderous dictator."

French President Emmanuel Macron, for example, then distanced himself from these statements.

The French head of state warned at the time that it was important to avoid an escalation of words and actions in the Ukraine war.

Sometimes Biden's faux pas appeared to be nothing more than slips of the tongue.

At a press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House in April, Biden spoke about stricter gun laws – and suddenly, out of context, used the word prostitute.

On another occasion, the 79-year-old said that he was "58.

birthday”.

He once forgot the name of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, calling him "That fellow Down Under" instead.

In this respect, the current confusion between Switzerland and Sweden fits seamlessly into Biden's series of verbal slips - and will probably not cause more than a shrug of the shoulders in diplomatic circles

(dpa / bme)

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Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-06-30

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