US President Biden is known for his slips of the tongue and small omissions. Now it’s happening to him again: at the NATO summit in Madrid he accidentally referred to Switzerland as a candidate for membership. He notices – and tries to save the situation with a joke.
Switzerland, which is very concerned about its neutrality, briefly became a candidate for membership of the military alliance at the NATO summit in Madrid: at a press conference on Thursday, US President Joe Biden described how the historic decision to admit Finland and Sweden to NATO came about . In one situation, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö suggested “calling the head of government in Switzerland about her accession efforts,” Biden said.
The US President immediately noticed his slip of the tongue. “Switzerland, my God… I obviously have a really, really great desire to expand 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. Biden has long been known for his slips of the tongue, from minor mishaps to outright verbal gaffes.
