WARSAW, Poland (AP) – President Joe Biden He reaffirmed the US commitment to European security as he met with Polish President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday, as part of a series of consultations with allies to prepare for a more complex phase of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We must have security in Europe,” he said at the presidential palace in Warsaw. “It’s that simple, that dependency.”
Biden has called NATO “perhaps the most important alliance in history,” and said it is “stronger than ever” despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hopes that it will be divided by the war in Ukraine.
Biden arrived in Warsaw on Monday after paying a surprise visit to Kiev. Duda hailed Biden’s trip as “amazing”, saying it had “boosted the morale of Ukraine’s defenders”.
He said the visit was “a sign that the free world, and its greatest leader, the President of the United States, is on their side.”
Biden is scheduled to give a speech on the war later on Tuesday, and on Wednesday he plans to meet again with Duda along with other leaders of the Bucharest Group of Nine, a group of members of NATO’s military alliance in the far east.
The conflict in Ukraine – Europe’s most important war since World War II – has left tens of thousands dead, destroyed Ukraine’s infrastructure system, and wreaked havoc on the global economy.
In his speech, Biden is expected to highlight the commitment of Poland and other allies to Ukraine over the past year when he speaks from the gardens of the Royal Warsaw Castle.. Last March, speaking from Warsaw, Biden delivered a strong and very personal condemnation Putin just weeks after the start of the war.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday’s speech will be “Joe Biden” and that the Democratic president will make clear that actions democracies take in the coming years will reverberate for years to come.
Biden will speak on the day Putin is giving his long-awaited state of the nation address, in which he announced that Moscow would suspend its participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control agreement with the United States.
The so-called New START treaty limits the number of long-range nuclear warheads that can be deployed and limits the use of missiles that can carry atomic weapons.
Sullivan said Biden’s speech wouldn’t be “kind of eye-to-eye” with Putin’s.
“This is not a rhetorical contest with anyone else,” he said. “This is a positive statement of values, a vision of what the world we are trying to build and defend should look like.”
As Biden looks to use his quick trip to Europe as a moment of affirmation for Ukraine and its allies, the White House has also emphasized that there is no clear end to the war in the near term, and the situation on the ground is becoming increasingly complex. .
The administration revealed Sunday that it has new intelligence indicating that China, which has remained on the sidelines of the conflict, is now considering sending lethal aid to Moscow. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it could become a “serious problem” if Beijing continued.
Sullivan said that Biden and Zelensky discussed the capabilities Ukraine needs to “be able to succeed on the battlefield” in the coming months. Zelensky has been pressing the United States and European allies to provide fighter jets and long-range missile systems known as ATACMS — which Biden has so far refused to provide. Sullivan declined to comment on whether there had been any movement on the matter during the leaders’ talk.
With no end in sight to the war, the anniversary is a defining moment for Biden To try to promote European unity and to assert that Putin’s invasion was a direct attack on the international system after World War II. The White House hopes the president’s visit to Kiev and Warsaw will help strengthen American and global resolve.
In the United States, a poll released last week by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research Support for the supply of weapons and direct economic assistance to Ukraine is declining. And earlier this month, 11 Republican members of the House of Representatives introduced what they called a “strain Ukraine” resolution that urged Biden to end military and financial aid to Ukraine, while pushing Ukraine and Russia to reach a peace deal.
Biden denied the idea of declining US support during his visit to Kiev.
While in Kiev, he said: “Despite all the disagreements we have in Congress on some issues, there is great agreement to support Ukraine.” “It’s not just about freedom in Ukraine. … It’s about freedom in democracy in general.”
Ahead of the trip, the White House highlighted Poland’s efforts to help Ukraine. More than 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees have settled in Poland since the beginning of the war and millions more have crossed through Poland on their way to other countries. According to the White House, Poland has also provided Ukraine with $3.8 billion in military and humanitarian aid.
The Biden administration announced last summer that it was creating a permanent American garrison in Poland, creating a permanent American foothold on NATO’s eastern flank.
“The fact of the matter is, the United States needs Poland and NATO as much as NATO needs the United States,” Biden told Duda.
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Miller reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Monika Cieslowska in Warsaw and Evan Fauci in Kiev, and Chris Megyrian and Kevin Fring in Washington contributed to this report.
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