Biden’s visit to Helsinki is a sign that the relations between Finland and the USA are moving to a new level. The visit also offers Biden the opportunity to air a significant security policy achievement.
If the US president has come to Finland for a visit, it has usually not been due to Finland’s own attraction.
Historically, Helsinki has either provided a setting for bilateral meetings between the leaders of the major powers, or served as a resting place for the host of the White House who is exhausted on a trip.
This time is different.
When Air Force One lands at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport on July 13, the President of the United States Joe Biden will come to Finland face to face and meet the Finnish president.
Of course, he also holds discussions with other prime ministers of the Nordic countries in Helsinki.
A similar summit meeting between the United States and the Nordic countries has been held a couple of times before.
They are important events for the United States, but it is no coincidence that the summit is being held in Finland, or that Biden is having separate bilateral talks with the president Sauli Niinistön with.
Finland is NATO’s newest member, and Biden’s visit is a clear indication of US support for the military alliance.
But there is much more to Biden’s visit.
It offers the president, who suffers from weak domestic approval ratings, the opportunity to bask in the glow of a significant foreign and security policy achievement.
The alliance’s expansion along the Russian border and the military strengthening of its northern reach is a feather in Biden’s cap – regardless of whether it is his merit.
Emphasizing these achievements during the visit to Finland is in any case domestically wise.
Although the loud critics of the extreme Republicans sometimes question the military aid directed to Ukraine – and generally look down on multilateral security policy cooperation – Finland’s NATO membership is a reasonably easy victory for Biden to sell on his home turf.
In Biden’s world of thought, Finland’s NATO membership is also connected to a larger battle.
The host of the White House has repeatedly tried to warn others that we are living at a turning point where democracies are waging a global battle against growing authoritarian currents. This fight is a matter of the heart for Biden.
Of course, Finland has not been sliding into dangerous waters for democracy like Hungary, or even the United States. However, its joining NATO is, in Biden’s eyes, a clear victory for democratic countries, and a defeat for countries like Russia that trample on democracy.
For these reasons, Finland is no longer the comfortable inn or convenient meeting place for the United States.
Today’s NATO-Finland is a necessary and even more equal security partner for the United States. At that station, the visit of the US president will certainly come off more sensitively than before.
The topic can be discussed until 23:00 on July 4, 2023.