President Biden Salah Calls His Name Putin, Zelensky: I'm Better

President Biden when accepting President Zelensky on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington DC (Twitter/@ZelenskyyUa)

JAKARTA - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was better, when United States President Joe Biden made the wrong name as Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.

That was conveyed by President Biden during the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Washington DC, before he corrected it and was greeted with laughter.

"And now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has the same courage and determination, ladies and gentlemen, President Putin," President Biden said, referring to President Zelensky.

"President Putin, you will beat President Putin, President Zelenskiy. I am very focused on defeating Putin," he added while correcting himself about two seconds later.

The room at the summit came as President Biden misidentified President Zelensky as President Putin. The comments came at an event at a summit, when he launched an initiative with allies aimed at supporting Ukraine's security needs.

"I am better (than Putin)," President Zelensky commented in response to President Biden's mistake.

"You are much better," President Biden said, while some people in the room laughed, before President Zelensky started his own speech.

This comes as the incumbent from the Democratic Party, which will run in the November US presidential election, is in the spotlight and faces doubts, including from its party members and donors about the opportunity to be re-elected, following its weak and shaky performance in last month's debate against former Republican President Donald Trump.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended President Biden's mistake on Thursday following the president's mistake.

"Mistakes of speech occur and if you're always monitoring everyone, you'll find quite a lot of mistakes like that," Chancellor Scholz said.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in separate press conferences has repeatedly avoided answering the question of whether President Biden is worthy enough to run for US president. Instead, he praised President Biden's role in organizing and leading what he called a meeting of the successful NATO alliance.

Then on Thursday, Biden held a single press conference at the NATO summit, the first time he has faced the press alone since November, where he was asked about his mistake. He responded by saying the NATO summit was successful under his leadership.

"Did you see a more successful conference?" he asked reporters, answering questions about potential concerns among foreign officials about his feasibility to be re-elected.

At a summit in Washington, NATO members have provided support to Ukraine to combat the Russian invasion that began in February 2022. The United States has become Ukraine's most important partner in military aid during the war.