Western leaders seek to shore up ageing Nato – and Biden too

WESTERN leaders are this week commemorating the 75th anniversary of Nato, the creaking military organisation. Yet, attention is instead fast turning to another ageing figure at the heart of the transatlantic alliance, 81-year-old US President Joe Biden.

Multiple US allies around the world are alarmed by the recent presidential debate performance of Biden which has cemented growing expectations that he may lose the November election to Nato-sceptic Donald Trump. So much so, that at the next Nato summit in The Hague in June 2025, some in the military alliance are already projecting to transatlantic turmoil that characterised Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021.

The continuing feasibility of Biden’s re-election campaign will therefore be an unofficial discussion point at this year’s summit. He is scheduled to speak several times, including at a press conference on Thursday (Jul 10) before heading back to the campaign trail in the US.