Biden urges US to protect democracy in clifftop speech at key D-Day site in France

PARIS – President Joe Biden on June 7 urged the US to protect democracy and follow the example of World War II heroes, in a speech on a clifftop in northern France that was the scene of a bloody confrontation between US troops and occupying Germans on D-Day.

Mr Biden gave the speech on the final day of

ceremonies marking 80 years since the Allied landings in Normandy

on June 6, 1944, that marked a turning point in World War II.

He is set to face Republican rival and predecessor Donald Trump in 2024, in a presidential election that commentators predict will subject US democracy to a severe test.

Mr Biden summoned up the ghosts of the heroes of the assault on the Pointe du Hoc, a clifftop promontory where German bunkers were attacked by US troops.

“They (the veterans) are summoning us,” he said, against the backdrop of the Channel. “They ask us, what will we do? They’re not asking us to scale these cliffs. They’re asking us to stay true to what America stands for.”

Mr Biden’s speech came under the shadow of

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

, which has left war again raging in Europe eight decades after the end of World War II. There are also fears that Trump will scale down US participation in international alliances like Nato and lessen support for Ukraine if he wins.

“American democracy asks the hardest of things: to believe that we’re a part of something bigger than ourselves. So democracy begins with each of us,” he said.

‘They did their job’

Mr Biden, a Democrat, was unmistakably evoking the memory of a famous speech given by late Republican president Ronald Reagan at the Normandy clifftop in 1984 where he saluted the American “boys” of the Pointe du Hoc.

“The rangers who scaled this cliff did not know they would change the world but they did,” said Mr Biden.

“They came to a shoreline that none of them would have picked out on a map... But they came, they did their job, they fulfilled their mission... They were part of something greater than themselves.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had earlier on June 7 urged the West to do more to achieve a fair peace as Ukraine battles the Russian invasion, telling Mr Biden that Kyiv is counting on “shoulder-to-shoulder” support.

Mr Zelensky told France’s Parliament that he hoped a summit hosted by Switzerland later in June on bringing peace to Ukraine could hasten a fair end to the conflict. “I am grateful for all you are already doing and it is a lot. But for a fair peace, more must be done,” he said.

Meeting Mr Zelensky in Paris after the speech

, Mr Biden pledged his support for Ukraine and announced another US$225 million (S$304 million) in aid to Kyiv.

“The United States will stand with you,” Mr Biden told Mr Zelensky.

Mr Biden hailed Ukraine’s “remarkable” resistance against the Russian invasion, saying: “You haven’t bowed down. You haven’t yielded at all... We’re not going to walk away from you.”

Mr Zelensky thanked him for the “tremendous support” and compared it to the US coming to Europe’s aid during World War II.

“We count on your continuing support to stand with us shoulder to shoulder,” the Ukrainian leader said.

‘No lines for evil’

Kyiv has been pushing Europe to increase military support, with Russia gaining the upper hand on the battlefield in recent months, in particular in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region.

The Ukrainian President warned the French Parliament that 80 years after the D-Day landings of World War II, Europe was “unfortunately no longer a continent of peace” owing to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Mr Zelensky dismissed the idea that there could be

peace in Ukraine based on current front lines

, with Russia sometimes deep inside Ukrainian territory.

“Can this war end on the lines that exist now? No. Because there are no lines for evil: not 80 years ago, not now,” he said.

“And if someone tries to draw temporary lines, it will only give a pause before a new war.”

Speaking on television, French President Emmanuel Macron said late on June 6 that Paris would

transfer Mirage 2000 fighter jets to Ukraine

and train Ukrainian pilots as part of new military cooperation. Mr Macron said he would suggest to Mr Zelensky at talks at the Elysee later on June 7 that the pilots be trained starting this summer.

He said Western allies would consider a request from Ukraine to send military instructors to train its forces on its soil to meet the growing challenge of building up troop numbers.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Macron’s comments indicated he was ready for France to take a “direct” role in the Ukraine conflict. AFP