Warsaw: On his final day in Europe, President Joe Biden reassured Poland that the United States would defend it. He also recognized that NATO‘s ally faced the brunt of the refugee issue caused by the fighting in Ukraine.
“Your liberty is our liberty,” Joe Biden told Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, echoing one of the country’s unofficial mottos. The two presidents spoke in the Presidential Palace in Warsaw on their mutual respect and shared goals to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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“Although circumstances are terrible,” Duda remarked, “Polish-American relations are blooming today.” Since the beginning of the war, more than 3.7 million people have fled Ukraine, with 2 million heading to Poland.
The United States declared earlier this week that it would accept up to 100,000 refugees. Joe Biden reminded Duda that he knew Poland was “taking on a great burden,” but it should be all NATO’s responsibility.
Joe Biden referred to NATO’s “collective defense” accord as a “sacred obligation,” emphasizing the necessity of the Western military alliance’s unity.
“I’m certain that [Russian President] Vladimir Putin intended to divide NATO,” Joe Biden said of Putin. “But he hasn’t been able to pull it off. We’ve kept together as a group.”
With the war in its second month, European security faces its most critical test since World War II.
Western authorities have spent the last week discussing contingency measures if the crisis expands. The invasion disturbed NATO’s complacency, which has cast a gloomy shadow over Europe.
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Sullivan, Joe Biden’s national security adviser, said Biden’s speech in Poland’s capital later on Saturday would outline the “urgency of the challenge.” He also said: “what the conflict in Ukraine means for the world, and why it is so important that the free world remain united and resolve in the face of Russian aggression.”
Joe Biden’s remarks will cap off a four-day journey that began with a series of summits in Brussels. Along with his discussion with Duda, he attended a Ukrainian and US diplomatic and defense officials conference. The conference was to get an update on Ukraine’s military, diplomatic, and humanitarian situation.
The itinerary has a trip to a stadium where Ukrainian refugees can receive a Polish identification number. The number allows them access to social services such as health care and schools.
When Poland and Ukraine hosted the European Football Championship in 2012, the stadium was built to signify how far the two countries had gone since the Cold War. Its most recent use was as a field hospital for COVID-19 patients.
During his appearances in Rzeszow on Friday, Joe Biden gave a preview of his closing statement.
Joe Biden visited the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division’s temporary headquarters. He informed them, “You’re in a war between democracies and oligarchs.” “Will democracy and our principles triumph, or will autocracies triumph?”
In a briefing on the refugee response, Joe Biden stated that “the single most critical thing that we can do from the beginning” to push Putin to end the war is “to maintain the democracies together in our opposition.”
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The enormity of the crisis amounts to the most significant movement of refugees within Europe since World War II. Biden lauded the humanitarian effort as “such great consequence.”
He appeared to lament that “understandably” security concerns will prevent him from visiting Ukraine on this trip.
“We do not want to refer to them as refugees. They are our visitors, brothers, and neighbors from Ukraine, who are currently in a problematic situation,” He stated.
The United States has contributed money and resources to help with the refugee effort. In addition to accepting migrants, Biden offered $1 billion in additional aid this week.
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The US and many of its allies have slapped many economic and other penalties on Russian individuals, banks, and other institutions. The expectation is that the cumulative effect will force Putin to remove his troops.
Joe Biden scheduled to return to Washington following his speech in Warsaw. — European News Service
