Joe Biden likens Donald Trump's Ukraine war diplomacy to 'appeasement' of Russia
Former United States president Joe Biden has warned fragmentation between the US and Europe under Donald Trump's leadership threatens to "change the modern history of the world" for the worse, in his first interview since leaving the White House.
"It's a grave concern," he said of a future world without NATO, warning such a scenario would be exploited by anti-Western powers China and Russia.
"It would change the modern history of the world, if that occurs.
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We are not the essential nation, but we're the only nation in a position to have the capacity to bring people together to lead the world.
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Photo shows
Kamala Harris delivers a speech standing in front of a white backdrop that says emerge
Kamala Harris in her first major speech since losing the US election in November said President Donald Trump was "counting on the notion that fear can be contagious."
In the absence of the security alliance, Mr Biden argued, there would be no counterforce to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"Do you think Putin would have stopped at Ukraine? Do you think Putin would have stopped?" he questioned.
"I just don't understand how they (the present US government) fail to understand that there's strength in alliances. There's benefits. The cost there, it saves us money overall."
Mr Biden's interview coincides with commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, known as VE Day, in Europe this week.
He expressed concern about waning confidence in the "certainty of America" to deal with the world's challenges, saying the US's allies would soon "begin to doubt whether we're going to stay where we've always been in the last 80 years".
"European leaders and European countries, they're wondering, 'well, what do I do now? What's the best route for me to take? Can I rely on the United States? Are they going to be there?'"
'Appeasing' Russia
On Mr Trump's handling of Ukraine peace talks and his efforts to make Kyiv cede territory to Russia, Mr Biden said it amounted to "modern day appeasement".
"(Vladimir) Putin can't stand the fact that the Russian dictatorship that he runs, that the Soviet Union, has collapsed. And anybody (who) thinks he's going to stop is just foolish," he said.
"I just don't understand how people think that if we allow a dictator, a thug, to decide he's going to take significant portions of land that aren't his, that that's going to satisfy him."
Donald Trump has appeared to favour some of the Russian president's views on the Ukraine war.
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Reuters: Maxim Shemetov/Illustration/File Photo
)
As part of ceasefire negotiations, Moscow has repeatedly made demands for Kyiv to give up its claim to the Ukrainian territories Russia controls and officially recognise them as Russian.
Crimea, the peninsula that Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has been a major sticking point, with the
Ukraine has refused to recognise its occupied territories as Russian.
Since Mr Trump and Mr Putin's phone call on February 12,
Photo shows
Two men sitting on chairs in a church
Donald Trump has made big promises on Russia's war in Ukraine but he's becoming an impatient broker.
Asked if his own government's support for Ukraine's war effort had fallen short, Mr Biden said: "We gave them everything they needed to provide for their independence and we were prepared to respond, more aggressively, if Putin moved again."
Mr Biden also rebuked the televised
"I found it beneath America, the way that took place," he said, while also taking aim at Mr Trump's desires to annex Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal.
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What the hell is going on here? What president ever talks like that? That's not who we are. We're about freedom, democracy, opportunity. Not about confiscation.
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Mr Biden's interview comes just over
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