US President To Visit Finland This Month

Finland will be one of the countries to be visited by US President Biden later this month.

Following a summit for the leaders of NATO, American President, Joe Biden is scheduled to visit Finland on Thursday, July 13, according to Finland Today, Monday, July 3.

Nato Summit

The next NATO summit is due to take place in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius between July 11 – 12. These meetings are held periodically for its members to discuss issues that face the 31-strong alliance, in view of the current world situation.

From Vilnius, President Biden will fly to Finland for meetings with members of fellow Scandinavian countries. Finnish President, Sauli Niinistö will host the visit of the US President and a US-Nordic Leaders’ Summit in Finland’s capital Helsinki.

US – Nordic Summit

As well as Finland and the United States, the US-Nordic Summit will be attended by Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson; Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre; Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, and Icelandic prime minister, Katrín Jakobsdóttir.

The summit is due to take place in the Presidential Palace and will focus on closer cooperation between the Nordic countries and the United States on security, the environment and technology. At this stage, it has not been announced if the Finnish prime minister, Petteri Orpo, will attend the summit between the US and Nordic leaders.

Before the summit of Nordic countries, President Niinistö will have a one-on-one meeting with President Biden. Speaking at a press conference yesterday, President Niinistö said that the visit indicated that, ‘the United States holds the Nordic relations in high value.’

On a lighter note, he added: ‘The world doesn’t understand the Finnish politics of two plates. We try to take into account our guests who may feel a little bit weird if one country speaks with two voices.’

The first US-Nordic summit took place in Washington in 2016, and the second in Stockholm in 2013.