Washington, July 13
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday downplayed United States President Joe Biden’s Putin mix-up at the NATO summit in Washington. Biden had accidentally referred to him as Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy referred to Biden’s accident as a mistake.
“It’s a mistake. I think the United States gave a lot of support for Ukrainians. We can forget some mistakes, I think so,” Zelenskyy told reporters on Saturday at Ireland’s Shannon airport where he was meeting Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris.
During the NATO Summit, Biden had confused Zelenskyy with President Putin while inviting the Ukrainian president to speak. “And now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination. Ladies and gentlemen- President Putin,” said Biden.
Later realising the mistake, Biden said “He’s gonna beat President Putin, President Zelenskyy.” Slips of the tongue and stuttering are not something new to 81-year-old Biden. However, with running for the US presidential elections 2024, and the immense concern among even the Democrats regarding his state of mental health, this Putin mix-up had caused some serious damage. During a solo press conference, Biden made a similar mistake by replacing the last name of Vice President Kamala Harris with former President Donald Trump.
“I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if she wasn’t qualified to be president,” Biden said.
Meanwhile, many world leaders brushed off Biden’s so-called slip of the tongue. Defending Biden, French President Emmanual Macron said “Everyone makes slips of the tongue- it could happen to me tomorrow,” he said.
While having a conversation with Biden, Macron said he saw an experienced president, whose attachment to Europe is exemplary. Germany Chancellor Olaf Scholz commented on the incident saying “Slips of tongue happen, and if you always monitor everyone, you will find enough of them…But this doesn’t change a single thing of what the US president stated very clearly in his speech.”
