US president Joe Biden reaffirmed the United States’ dedication to European security as he met with Polish president Andrzej Duda during a series of consultations with allies to prepare for an even more complicated stage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We have to have security in Europe,” he said at the presidential palace in Warsaw on Tuesday.
“It’s that basic, that simple, that consequential.”
Mr Biden described Nato as “maybe the most consequential alliance in history” and he said it is “stronger than it’s ever been” despite Russian president Vladimir Putin’s hopes it would fracture over the war in Ukraine.
Mr Biden arrived in Warsaw on Monday after paying an unannounced visit to Kyiv. Mr Duda praised Mr Biden’s trip as “spectacular”, saying it “boosted (the) morale of Ukraine’s defenders”.
He said the visit is “a sign that the free world, and its biggest leader, the president of the United States, stands by them”.
Mr Biden is expected to deliver a speech on the war later on Tuesday, and on Wednesday he plans to meet again with Mr Duda along with other leaders of the Bucharest Nine, a group of the easternmost members of Nato.
The conflict in Ukraine — the most significant war in Europe since the Second World War — has already left tens of thousands of people dead, devastated Ukraine’s infrastructure system and damaged the global economy.
In his address, Mr Biden is expected to highlight the commitment of Poland and other allies to Ukraine over the past year when he speaks from the gardens of Warsaw’s Royal Castle. Last March, speaking from Warsaw, he delivered a forceful and highly personal condemnation of Mr Putin just weeks after the start of the war.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday’s speech will be “vintage Joe Biden” and that the Democratic president will lay out that the action democracies take in the coming years will have reverberations for years to come.
Mr Biden will speak on the day Mr Putin delivered his long-delayed state-of-the-nation address, in which he said Moscow will suspend its participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the United States.
The so-called New Start Treaty caps the number of long-range nuclear warheads they can deploy and limits the use of missiles that can carry atomic weapons.
Mr Sullivan said Mr Biden’s address will not be “some kind of head to head” with Mr Putin’s address.
“This is not a rhetorical contest with anyone else,” said. “This is an affirmative statement of values, a vision for what the world we’re both trying to build and defend should look like.”
While Mr Biden is looking to use his whirlwind trip to Europe as a moment of affirmation for Ukraine and allies, the White House has also emphasised that there is no clear endgame to the war in the near term and the situation on the ground has become increasingly complex.
The administration on Sunday revealed it has new intelligence suggesting that China, which has remained on the sidelines of the conflict, is now considering sending Moscow lethal aid. US secretary of state Antony Blinken said it could become a “serious problem” if Beijing follows through.
Mr Biden and Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy have discussed capabilities that Ukraine needs “to be able to succeed on the battlefield” in the months ahead, Mr Sullivan said. Mr Zelenskiy has been pushing the US and European allies to provide fighter jets and long-range missile systems known as ATACMS — which Mr Biden has declined to provide so far. Mr Sullivan declined to comment on whether there was any movement on the matter during the leaders’ talk.
With no end in sight for the war, the anniversary is a critical moment for Mr Biden to try to bolster European unity and reiterate that Mr Putin’s invasion was a frontal attack on the post-Second World War international order. The White House hopes the President’s visit to Kyiv and Warsaw will help bolster American and global resolve.
In the US, a poll published last week by the Associated Press-Norc Center for Public Affairs Research shows support for providing Ukraine with weapons and direct economic assistance is softening. And earlier this month, 11 House Republicans introduced what they called the “Ukraine fatigue” resolution, urging Mr Biden to end military and financial aid to Ukraine while pushing Ukraine and Russia to come to a peace agreement.
Mr Biden dismissed the notion of waning American support during his visit to Kyiv.
“For all the disagreement we have in our Congress on some issues, there is significant agreement on support for Ukraine,” he said. “It’s not just about freedom in Ukraine. It’s about freedom of democracy at large.”
Ahead of the trip, the White House spotlighted Poland’s efforts to help Ukraine. More than 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees have settled in Poland since the start of the war and millions more have crossed through Poland on their way to other countries. Poland has also provided Ukraine with military and humanitarian aid.
The Biden administration announced last summer that it was establishing a permanent US garrison in Poland, creating an enduring American foothold on Nato’s eastern flank.
“The truth of the matter is the United States needs Poland and Nato as much as Nato needs the United States,” Mr Biden told Mr Duda.
