President Joe Biden disclosed on Wednesday, February 22, 2023 that Russian President Vladimir Putin made a “big mistake” by suspending his country’s participation in the last remaining U.S.-Russia nuclear arms control treaty.
Biden made the comment to reporters on arrival at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw for a summit of the Bucharest Nine countries.
In his first comments since Putin’s announcement on Tuesday, Biden condemned the Russian decision to pull back from the treaty, known as New START.
The move is expected to have an immediate impact on U.S. visibility into Russian nuclear activities, but the pact was already on life support following Moscow’s cancellation late last year of talks that had been intended to salvage an agreement that both sides have accused the other of violating.
“It’s a big mistake,” Biden opined.
The Bucharest Nine is a collection of nations in the most eastern parts of the NATO alliance that came together in response to Putin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
“You’re the frontlines of our collective defense,” Biden said of the group.
“And you know, better than anyone, what’s at stake in this conflict? Not just for Ukraine, but for the freedom of democracies throughout Europe and around the world.”
President Joe Biden
Biden pledged that NATO’s mutual-defense pact is “sacred” and that “we will defend literally every inch of NATO.”
The U.S President iterated that the US will continue its support of Ukraine as it defends its freedom.
“What is at stake is not just Ukraine, it’s freedom,” Biden stated.
A day earlier at the foot of Warsaw’s Royal Castle to mark the somber milestone of the year-old Russian invasion, Biden warned that Russian aggression, if unchecked, would not stop at Ukraine’s borders.
“Appetites of the autocrat cannot be appeased. They must be opposed,” Biden stated.
“We Need To Ensure That History Does Not Repeat Itself.”
NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, who attended the meeting, said, “We don’t know when the war will end, but when it does, we need to ensure that history does not repeat itself.”
Jens Stoltenberg opined that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not preparing for peace, but rather, for more war, and as a result, support for Ukraine must be stepped up.
Pointing to past Russian actions in Georgia and Ukraine, he added, “We cannot allow Russia to continue to chip away at European security. We must break the cycle of Russian aggression.”
The NATO Chief added that Biden’s visit to Kyiv has sent a “clear message” that, the US has an “iron-clad commitment to the security of Europe”.
“NATO allies have never been more united,” Stoltenberg disclosed.
Polish President Andrzej Duda pointed out that today’s meeting was taking place near the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which had “forever changed the history of our part of Europe” as well as the security situation “across the world”.
Duda recalled how a year earlier, NATO leaders met in the same hall to discuss “the most significant challenge facing our states”.
Speaking of today’s meeting’s objectives, Duda said the aim was for allies to think about the possibilities for providing further support to Ukraine.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the right-wing populist leader who argued last week that the European Union is partly to blame for prolonging Russia’s war in Ukraine, has balked at sanctions on Moscow and arming Kyiv.
Orban skipped the meeting with Biden, and President Katalin Novák is attending in his stead.
Still, Klaus Iohannis, the President of Romania, insisted that “The B9 is stronger than ever.”
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