On his final day in Europe, President Joe Biden on Saturday sought to reassure Poland’s president that the US would defend it against any attacks by Russia.
After concerns have been surfacing that the US will not stand by some of NATO’s Eastern European nations, following the crisis in Ukraine.
Many of the NATO allies are concerned by what they have seen unfold with Ukraine. The rhetoric of support from the US dithered as soon as the war started.
He also acknowledged that the NATO ally bore the burden of the refugee crisis from the war in neighbouring Ukraine.
Your freedom is our freedom
“Your freedom is ours,” Biden told Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, echoing one of Poland’s unofficial mottos.
At the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, the two leaders spoke of their mutual respect and shared goals to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Although times are very difficult, today Polish-American relations are flourishing,” Duda said.
The USA will take 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
Earlier this week, the US announced it would take in as many as 100,000 refugees. Biden told Duda that he understood Poland was “taking on a big responsibility, but it should be all of NATO’s responsibility.”
Biden called the “collective defence” agreement of NATO a “sacred commitment” and said the unity of the Western military alliance was of the utmost importance.
“I’m confident that [Russian President] Vladimir Putin was counting on dividing NATO,” Biden said about the Russian president. “But he hasn’t been able to do it. We’ve all stayed together.”
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