WARSAW: US President Joe Biden spoke with top Ukrainian government officials in Warsaw on Saturday (Mar 26) during his visit to Poland to show support for the NATO alliance’s eastern flank in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Biden dropped in on a meeting between Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Ukraine had received additional security pledges from the United States on developing defence cooperation, Kuleba told reporters, while Reznikov expressed “cautious optimism” following the meeting with Biden.
“President Biden said what is happening in Ukraine will change the history of the 21st century, and we will work together to ensure that this change is in our favour, in Ukraine’s favour, in the favour of the democratic world,” Kuleba told Ukrainian national television soon after.
After a separate meeting with his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda, Biden called for “constant contact” between the United States and Poland, and reiterated Washington’s “sacred” commitment to security guarantees within NATO, of which Poland is a member.
Ukraine is not a member of NATO, and the United States is wary of getting dragged into direct confrontation with Russia, but with the war at the borders of the defence alliance, Washington has pledged to defend every inch of NATO territory.
The White House said that in a speech in Warsaw later on Saturday Biden “will deliver remarks on the united efforts of the free world to support the people of Ukraine, hold Russia accountable for its brutal war, and defend a future that is rooted in democratic principles”.
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