Warsaw, Feb. 22, (dpa/GNA) - US President Joe Biden is scheduled to meet representatives of several Eastern European NATO states in Warsaw on Wednesday, the second day of his visit to Poland.
The so-called Bucharest Nine group represents the countries that make up NATO’s eastern flank: Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is also expected to attend the talks.
The background to Biden’s visit and the consultations is the approaching first anniversary of the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, which Russia invaded on February 24, 2022.
Biden made a surprise trip to the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Monday in a secret operation and under tight security, where he met President Volodymyr Zelensky and, accompanied by air alerts, they visited various symbolic sites in the city.
Biden used the short visit primarily to promise Ukraine continued US support and to send a defiant signal of unity to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
Biden said that his trip to the region sends a signal of the responsibility the US bears for Europe’s security, and described NATO as “stronger than ever” a year after the start of the war.
He then moved on to Poland, where he delivered a speech at Warsaw’s Royal Castle on Tuesday evening.
GNA