“Our alliances weren’t built by coercion or maintained by threats,” Mr. Biden said. “They’re grounded on democratic ideals … where the rights of all people are protected. No nation can defeat us as long as we stick to our values.”
Mr. Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrived at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, the only permanent American refueling wing in Europe, as the first stop on their weeklong trip. As Mr. Biden took the stage and started his speech, he quickly interrupted himself.
“Please, at ease,” he told the troops. “I keep forgetting I’m president.”
Mr. Biden is seeking to revamp trans-Atlantic ties, forge a vaccine strategy against the COVID-19 pandemic and unite the world’s most economically advanced democracies to fight Russian and Chinese geopolitical provocations and a rising menace in cyberspace.
The Biden administration is poised to announce which countries will receive the first shipments of vaccines donated from the U.S. stockpile, amid the risk that more coronavirus variants will arise in countries lacking access to the shots, people familiar with the matter said.
Read more about Biden to begin Covid-19 vaccine donations abroad as variant threat looms on Business Standard. The White House, which has faced pressure from a range of countries to share its vaccines, has settled on its plan and an announcement is imminent, according to the people, who discussed the matter