Speaking at the World Economic Forum, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden described Russia as the biggest threat to the international liberal order and said the U.S. must work with Europe in order to stand up against Vladimir Putin.
Whilst President-elect Donald Trump has suggested a more conciliatory tone with the Russian President, Biden warned hundreds of leaders, CEOs and bankers at the conference that Putin would try and influence a series of elections in Europe this year, something Putin was accused of in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.
“Under President Putin, Russia is working with every tool available to them to whittle away at the edges of the European project, test the fault lines of western nations and return to a politics defined by spheres of influence,” Biden said.
“With many countries in Europe slated to hold elections this year, we should expect further attempts by Russia to meddle in the democratic process. It will occur again, I promise you. And again the purpose is clear: to collapse the liberal international order,” the Vice-President added.
Biden did not refer to Trump by name but did appear to take aim at the President-elect saying there was a “dangerous willingness to revert to political small-mindedness” and said that “dangerous autocrats and demagogues” have tried to capitalise on people’s fears throughout history.
Biden called Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which states that an attack on one member of the transatlantic military alliance is considered an attack on all, a “sacred obligation” – something Trump has raised doubts about, calling NATO “obsolete”.
“Defending the liberal international order requires that we resist the forces of European disintegration and maintain our longstanding insistence on a Europe, whole, free and peaceful,” said Biden.
“It means fighting for the European Union, one of the most vibrant and consequential institutions on earth,” he added.
Trump has publicly backed the UK’s exit of the EU and has predicted its disintegration.
See Biden’s full speech here.