US President Joe Biden promised more military support to Central European NATO member states on Thursday as concerns grew over a reinforcement of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, a Lithuanian presidential adviser said.
Biden also assured allies that Washington would not reach any agreement with Russia on the region behind their backs, adviser Asta Skysgiraite told reporters.
The US President spoke by telephone with the leaders of NATO member states along the borders of the alliance with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria.
“He said there could be other moves to reassure these countries and additional military capabilities for them,” Skysgraite said, without elaborating on possible locations.
Russia has rallied troops on its border with Ukraine, where Kremlin-backed rebels are fighting the Kiev government, fearing it may be preparing to invade the country.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied any plans to attack Ukraine, but has strongly opposed what he sees as NATO expansion to the east and the deployment of military equipment near its borders.
In a telephone conversation with the US president, Polish President Andrei Duda urged Biden to ensure that talks on how to deal with a possible Russian attack were not limited to a small circle of countries, a Polish official said.
Ahead of a telephone conversation with Putin on Tuesday, Biden had consulted with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy.
“Four countries can not speak on behalf of NATO,” the Polish official told Reuters.
Duda also told Biden that the United States should not shy away from increasing its troops on NATO’s east wing, the Polish official said.
In Washington, a senior Biden government official said Biden reiterated the United States’ commitment to the NATO Charter, which states that an armed attack on one member state is considered an attack on all.
Biden also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and made it clear that the United States and its allies “would have no decisions or discussions about Ukraine without Ukraine,” the White House said.
Biden’s telephone conversations with Eastern European leaders followed the promise of high-level meetings with Russia and key NATO partners to discuss Moscow’s concerns and work to reduce tensions.
The senior US official said the United States was ready to discuss security issues with Moscow, but that Biden had made no concessions when he spoke with Putin on Tuesday.
Biden said Ukraine is a sovereign country that must decide its own future, Skysgraite said. He also warned Putin that there would be “very serious consequences, in coordination with European partners,” if Russia invaded Ukraine, he said.
Russia maintained hostile rhetoric toward Ukraine on Thursday, comparing the crisis there to the most dangerous moment of the Cold War (the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war).
Lithuanian President Gitana Nauseda told Biden that a permanent US troop presence in his country would be “the most effective” deterrence and security in the region.
SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
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Source From: Capital
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