Administration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr., 2022

March 24, 2022

President Michel. We are very pleased, dear President, dear Joe, to welcome you again in Brussels. Your presence here and your participation in this European Council meeting is a very strong signal.

Our unity is rock solid, and we are very, very pleased to coordinate, to cooperate with you.

These are difficult times, challenging times, and we need to take the right and the intelligent decisions for the future, for the security, for the stability.

And thank you for this excellent cooperation and coordination.

President Biden. Well, I came to congratulate a man who just got reelected without opposition. I dream about that someday.

But look, from the very beginning, I was of the view: The single most important thing that we have to do in the West is be united. I'm not saying thatâthat's not a euphemism. I mean it literally. Literally.

I spent some time with Vladimir Putin back in November and December, and we had a conference in Switzerland, at the time. And it was clear to me, and it was to you, that his intentions were very different than benign intentions.

And one of the things that he's tried to doâhis overwhelming objectiveâand I've been speaking about it for a year and a half: His overwhelming objective is to demonstrate that democracies cannot function in the 21st centuryâbecause things are moving so rapidly, they require consensus, and it's too difficult to get consensusâand autocracies are going to rule. As a matter of fact, we've lost more democratic countriesâfewer democratic countries today than there were 10 years ago.

And so, from the very beginning, my objectiveâand I had a great partner in thisâwas to see to it that we built total, complete unity among the major democracies of the world. I'm not joking about that.

That's why I called just a couple weeks ago and asked NATO to set up a newâa NATO meeting of the heads of state, and it was tookâwhich took place today. And I fortunately am able to attend two other conferences.

But my point is: unity. Unity. And the very thing that Putin has tried to do from the beginning, and I've been saying this since my days as Vice President of the United States, is to break up NATOâbreak up NATO. He'd rather face 30 independent countries than 30 united countries andâwith the United States of America. Not a joke. I'm being deadly earnest. I believe that's been his intention from the very, very beginning.

And so what I want to thank Michel for is theâMichelâis that the whole idea of the unity of Europe as a whole, not just NATOâthe Gâ7 and this organizationâreally matters. It's the single most important thing that we can do to stop this guy who'sâIâin our country, we believe he's already committed war crimes.

But thank you very much for the time, and thank you.

Q. President Biden, can the Americans stillâ[inaudible]?

President Michel. Thank you. Thank you.

China

Q. Mr. President, do you trust China? Do you trust China?

President Biden. Yes, we will discuss China. I've spent some time with Xi Jinping. And we'reâI hope we're going to get a chance to discuss China.

NOTE: The President spoke at approximately 7:20 p.m. in a hallway of the Europa Building. In his remarks, he referred to President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia; and President Xi Jinping of China.

Categories: Meetings With Foreign Leaders and International Officials : European Council, President Michel.

Locations: Brussels, Belgium.

Names: Michel, Charles Yvon; Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich; Xi Jinping.

Subjects: Belgium : President Biden's visit; China : President; Commerce, international : Group of Seven (Gâ7) nations; Communications : News media :: Presidential interviews; Europe : European Union :: European Council President; Foreign policy, U.S. : Democratization; North Atlantic Treaty Organization; Russia : President; Russia : Relations with U.S.; Russia : Ukraine, airstrikes and invasion; Ukraine : Russian airstrikes and invasion.

DCPD Number: DCPD202200207.