President Joe Biden to Meet European Leaders After Vital Ukraine Meeting – President Joe Biden is expected to travel to Europe next week where he will meet with several European leaders. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced the plans on Tuesday, explaining how the president will travel to Brussels, Belgium, where he will take part in a NATO summit set to take place on March 24.
Psaki also said that the president will attend a European Council meeting, where the topic of the Russian invasion of Ukraine will be discussed.
It will be the most important trip of Biden’s time in office yet, and could potentially result in the adoption of new strategies from NATO allies to assist Ukraine in its efforts to hold back Russian forces advancing into Kyiv and other major population centers.
“He will also join a scheduled European Council summit to discuss our shared concerns about Ukraine, including trans-Atlantic efforts to impose economic costs on Russia, provide humanitarian support to those affected by the violence and address other challenges related to the conflict,” Psaki said on Tuesday.
She added that the president’s decision to go abroad aligned with his belief in “face-to-face diplomacy” and that his intention is to determine where NATO forces are with regard to the Ukraine invasion.
European Leaders Already Met in Kiev
On. Tuesday, the Prime Ministers of Slovenia, Czech Republic, and Poland met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in wartorn Kiev. Zelenskyy successfully used the meeting to encourage Poland’s leaders to support his bid for Ukraine to become a member of the European Union.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki affirmed his support for Zelenskyy’s efforts and called on European Union leaders to grant candidate status to Ukraine.
“We are here to admire your fight against such a cruel aggressor. This invasion has to stop,” the Polish Prime Minister said. “Those who are killed by Putin, they can never be forgotten. They are not forgotten.
Ukraine’s efforts to join the European Union indicate that Zelenskyy is not taking seriously Russia’s insistence that the country permanently alters its constitution to prevent it from joining Western political blocs. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week that the fighting would stop “in a moment” if Ukraine agreed to such terms.
Polish leaders also promised to help Ukraine organize its defenses, while the Czech Prime Minister promised to continue hosting Ukrainian wives and children.
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and report on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
