During his closing statement at the Nato summit in Washington US President Joe Biden made his worst gaffe to date, introducing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as “president Putin” on July 12. Biden realised his mistake immediately and quickly correcting himself.

“President Putin? He is going to beat Putin! President Zelenskiy! I'm so focused on beating president Putin you got to worry about it!” Biden said.

Zelenskiy laughed the mistake off and responded, “I'm better.” But the incident was very embarrassing and comes on top of Biden’s disastrous performance in his recent debate with presidential race rival Donald Trump and could be the final nail in Biden’s re-election ambitions.

Biden also referred to his running mate Kamala Harris as “vice president Trump” during the first question from reporters at the press conference after the Nato Summit in Washington.

Asked about Harris’ ability to govern should she take over the top of the ticket in his stead because of ill health he said: “I wouldn’t have picked vice president Trump...” he said, without correcting himself.

The address was seen by some as a make-or-break moment for Biden, and comes as the president attempts to play down concerns about his age and capabilities following his disastrous presidential debate against Donald Trump last month.

Four Democratic sources with inside knowledge told CBS News that they expect dozens of Democratic lawmakers to issue statements calling for President Biden to step out of the race over the next 48 hours.

The three-day Nato summit wound up with 32 countries signing Ukraine Compact final communiqué pledging their ongoing support for Kyiv’s struggle against Russia.

Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine dominated discussions at the Nato Alliance’s 75th-anniversary summit, where several countries unveiled new aid packages and signed security agreements.

However, Kyiv did not receive any new concrete proposals regarding its future membership in the Alliance, which was called “irreversible” but no timeline or roadmap for membership was discussed, leaving Kyiv in limbo.

“This historic Compact creates a unified and comprehensive security architecture to support Ukraine today and in the future, in war and in peace,” a White House press briefing stated.

The compact pledges member states to support Ukraine’s defence needs through training, military aid, and economic assistance, while also accelerating efforts to bolster Ukraine’s defence capacities. Signatories also agreed to "convene swiftly and collectively at the most senior levels to determine appropriate next steps" should Russia launch a future armed attack against Ukraine.

“In the short term, we will continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons, ammunition, and training necessary to repel Russian forces,” Biden said during the compact’s unveiling. “In the medium term, we will help build the forces and capabilities to defend Ukraine and deter further aggression.”

Zelenskiy praised the initiative, stating, “This Ukraine Compact we are forming takes our relations to a new level — a significant achievement for Ukraine and all of us.”

China reacts to accusations 

The Nato members also issued the most stringent criticism of China to date, accusing it directly for the first time of supplying Russia with weapons to support its military campaign in Ukraine. Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters it was the first time the 32 allies had jointly labelled China a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war and called it an important message.

China has joined Russian President Vladimir Putin in opposing what they call the “unipolar hegemony of the US” and called for a multipolar global set up. Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping declared a “partnership without limits” during a three-day trip to Moscow in March 2023. Putin followed that visit up with his own trip to Beijing in May where he held in-depth wide-ranging talks with Xi on their joint response to sanctions.

China has been openly supplying Russia with dual-use goods and successfully helped Russia dodge most of the sanctions, but has refrained, publicly, from overtly selling Russia military supplies.

So far, Washington has shied away from escalating those tensions by saying Beijing is directly supplying Russia with weapon, but that changed with the Nato summit declaration, although it stopped short of accusing Beijing of supplying things like ammunition and artillery pieces.

The accusations caused outrage in Beijing that accused Nato of “lies.” China's foreign minister Wang Yi has hit back at Nato's "groundless accusations" that Beijing is helping Russia warning that the Western alliance against stirring up confrontation.

"China absolutely does not accept" all these accusations and insisted that they have "always been a force for peace and force for stability", Wang said.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Nato was smearing China with "fabricated disinformation". The Beijing EU mission told the alliance to "stop hyping up the so-called China threat".

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said during his daily press briefing that Nato’s allegations were “biased, slanderous, and provocative” and Beijing has lodged a formal complaint with the alliance on the matter. Lin dismissed Nato as a “Cold War relic” and claims that China has played a “constructive role” in the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Beijing has accused the US and other Western states of pouring "fuel on the fire" by supplying lethal weapons and technology to Ukraine for its defence.

Xi has recently repeatedly called for negotiated ceasefire talks to start and has offered, together with fellow BRICS member Brazil, to host a ceasefire talks summit to follow on from the failed Swiss peace summit held on June 16-17 that failed to rally support amongst the Global South for Ukraine’s cause.

As bne IntelliNews reported, Ukraine is inching towards a ceasefire as pressure on Kyiv mounts and support for Ukraine becomes increasingly polarised with more Global South countries either siting on the fence, or openly supporting Putin.