Biden promises to defend “every inch” of NATO territory to countries on the eastern flank
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, committed himself to the United States. This Wednesday I will protect the countries on the eastern flank of NATO considering that they are the “first line” of defense against Russia. “I will defend literally every inch” of the territory, he said. It came at a time of growing concern about the possible extension of the conflict in Ukraine .
Biden made these remarks at the start of a meeting at the presidential palace in Warsaw. He met with the leaders of the Bucharest Group of Nine, made up of Eastern European countries that joined NATO after the fall of the Soviet Union and who advocate increasing aid to Ukraine.
“As part of NATO's eastern flank, you are in the front line for our collective defense. You know better than anyone what is at stake in this conflict, not just for Ukraine, but for the freedom of democracies across Europe and around the world,” the president said.
A short distance from Biden was NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who had come to Warsaw expressly to take part in this meeting.
“More war”
Stoltenberg lamented his decision. He said that, almost a year after the start of the war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin “is not preparing for peace, but for more war.”
< p>“We must maintain and increase our support for Ukraine. We must give Ukraine what it needs to prevail. We don't know when this war will end, but when it does, we must make sure that history does not repeat itself,” he said. Stoltenberg forcefully.
Only the beginning of the meeting was open to the press and, behind closed doors, the leaders of the Bucharest Group of Nine were expected to ask the US greater guarantees for their security, as they feel that if Putin expands the war beyond the If you are from Ukraine your countries could be as follows.
That group, made up of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, was created in 2015 in response to what those nations saw as aggressiveness. Russia after its unilateral annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014.
As he advanced This Tuesday, in an interview on Lithuanian radio, one of his advisers, the President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nauseda, wanted to take advantage of the meeting to ask Biden for “greater US involvement in Europe, on the eastern flank of the NATO and more help to Ukraine.”
Speaking to the press upon his arrival, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said that the leaders of NATO's eastern flank “have the duty to remain firm in the defense of peace” in their countries and advocated for continuing to support Ukraine for as long as it takes for it to “win the war.”
Orban's absence
According to the White House, in addition to Biden, Stoltenberg, Nauseda and Iohannis, the meeting was attended by the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Petr Fiala; so like the presidents of Poland, Andrzej Duda; Slovakia, Zuzana Caputova; Bulgaria, Rumen Radevc; Estonian, Alar Karis; and Latvia, Egils Levits.
He didn't go to the hospital. The Hungarian Prime Minister Víktor Orban met, but that country was represented by President Katalin Novák.
This meeting put an end to the Biden's European tour was scheduled to return to Washington tonight after a surprise visit to Kiev and a speech in the gardens of the former royal castle in Warsaw. I met in Warsaw last night with the President of Moldova, Maia Sandu, who last week secured the victory. that Moscow he was plotting to overthrow her government, although she later ruled out his claim. an imminent threat.
