US President Joe Biden will be on a trip to Europe this week for urgent talks with NATO and European Allies.
During this trip, he will also visit Poland. The visit follows as Russian forces concentrate their fire upon cities in a nearly month-old conflict with Ukraine. US Press Secretary Jen Psaki in a statement last night said that Biden will first travel to Brussels and then to Poland to meet with leaders there.
Poland is a crucial ally in the Ukraine crisis. It is hosting thousands of American troops and is taking in more people fleeing the war in Ukraine. More than two million are in the midst of the largest European refugee crisis in decades.
Biden will head to Warsaw for a bilateral meeting with President Andrzej Duda scheduled for Saturday. Biden will discuss how the U.S., along with its allies and partners, is responding to the humanitarian and human rights crisis in Ukraine
According to White House, Biden will discuss the situation in Ukraine with European leaders today ahead of his trip. President Emmanuel Macron of France, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, Prime Minister Mario Draghi of Italy, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom are expected to take part in the discussion. White House, however, clarified that Biden has no plans to travel to Ukraine. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whoever, while in Poland this month, briefly crossed into neighboring Ukraine in a show of solidarity alongside that country’s Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba.
Biden’s trip includes a summit Thursday of NATO leaders, who will use the meeting to look at strengthening the bloc’s own deterrence and defense, immediately and in the long term, to deal with Russia.
