BRUSSELS (Reuters) – NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg dodged questions about the US president on Friday Joe Biden‘s health ahead of an alliance summit in Washington next week. He said one reason for NATO’s success was that the organization stayed out of domestic political issues.
Biden’s health has become a major issue in the US election campaign, following his shaky performance in a debate with Republican opponent Donald Trump last week.
Biden will take part in a series of events over the next week aimed at showing he still has the energy to compete in the November 5 election.
Asked if he was concerned that the emphasis on Biden’s capabilities could overshadow NATO’s message at the summit, Stoltenberg said NATO summits always take place within a domestic political context.
“What NATO can do is focus on the content of NATO, and that is what we will do,” Stoltenberg, the secretary general, said at a news conference ahead of the summit at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Asked whether he thinks Biden is mentally and physically fit enough to lead NATO’s largest nuclear-armed member in the coming years and whether he has noticed any deterioration in Biden’s condition, Stoltenberg said he met Biden a few weeks ago and that the conversations with him in the Oval Office were positive.
“We have made progress in preparing for the upcoming NATO summit,” he said, adding that he welcomed Biden’s strong personal leadership in supporting Ukraine.
But he said further comments could be damaging to NATO.
“One of the reasons NATO has been successful is that we have always stayed out of domestic political issues,” he said.
“If I say something that gets me involved in the political debates in an alliance, I will actually weaken the alliance.”
(Reporting by Andrew Gray, Geert De Clercq and Benoit Van Overstraten, editing by Angus MacSwan)
