“America’s ability to meet its role in other parts of the world rests upon a united Europe and a secure Europe,” Biden said Saturday as he met with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw. “We have learned from sad experiences in two world wars, when we’ve stayed out of and not been involved in stability in Europe, it always comes back to haunt the United States.”
In brief remarks, Biden repeatedly cited America’s commitment to NATO’s Article V pledge of common defense, and noted he was a main proponent of Polish membership in NATO when he was a senator 25 years ago.5
“We take Article 5 as a sacred commitment, not a throwaway, a sacred commitment that relates to every member of NATO,” Biden said, insisting that members must remain “absolutely, completely thoroughly united.”
The President’s comments are a sharp contrast from the “America First” foreign policy of former President Donald Trump, who called NATO “obsolete” before he came into office and often questioned the value of American alliances with European nations. Trump’s time in office was marked by his spats with foreign leaders and the often-contentious nature of his dealings with traditional American allies in Europe and across the globe.
Given this recent history, NATO’s strength and unity had been questioned in recent years. Biden told Duda that he was sure Russian President Vladimir Putin “was counting on being able to divide NATO and separate the eastern flank from the west, and separate nations based on past histories. But he wasn’t able to do it.”
And noting that Poland had taken in millions of refugees fleeing violence in Ukraine, Biden made a point of referencing migrants seeking entry into the United States at its southern border. But he said the US must also take in people fleeing the war in Europe.
“We have, in our southern border, thousands of people a day — literally, not figuratively — trying to get into the United States,” he said. “But we believe that we, the United States, should do our part relative to Ukraine as well, by opening our borders to another 100,000 people.”
Biden meets Ukrainian officials in Warsaw
Earlier Saturday, Biden met Ukrainian government officials who had traveled to Warsaw for engagements with their American counterparts. Biden’s visit to Europe has been entirely focused on the war, but the talks with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov were the first time Biden was able to meet face-to-face with officials from Ukraine during his tour.
As it got underway, Kuleba described an arduous journey from Kyiv to Warsaw that included a train and three hours in a car.
“It’s like flying from Kyiv to Washington with a connecting flight in Istanbul,” Kuleba said. “The good thing is that since the beginning of the war I’ve learned how to sleep under any conditions. So I slept on the train, I slept in the car.”
Biden, on hearing how the ministers had traveled, relayed that he, too, had made many journeys by train.
“You’re looking at a fellow who’s traveled over a million, 200,000 miles on a train. Literally,” Biden said. Biden commuted from his home in Delaware to Washington as a senator and vice president on Amtrak trains.
The group meeting at a hotel in Warsaw, which also included Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, delved into more substantive issues later. A White House readout said the men discussed “further efforts to help Ukraine defend its territory.”
Ukraine has been pressuring the US and NATO to increase the military assistance they are providing to Ukraine, including calls from President Volodymyr Zelensky to establish a no-fly zone.
After talks in Brussels this week, during which Zelensky appeared virtually, it did not appear NATO members had warmed to the idea. Biden has said becoming more directly involved in the conflict could usher in World War III.
That left Ukraine’s leaders dismayed. “We are very disappointed, in all honesty. We expect more bravery. Expected some some bold decisions. The alliance has taken decisions as if there’s no war,” said Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, in a live interview with the Atlantic Council on Friday.
A focus on refugees on trip’s final day
The speech, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a preview on Friday, “will speak to the stakes of this moment, the urgency of the challenge that lies ahead, what the conflict in Ukraine means for the world, and why it is so important that the free world sustain unity and resolve in the face of Russian aggression.”
While Biden will meet with refugees in Warsaw, he said on Friday that he would have preferred to see the crisis from an even closer perspective.
“They will not let me — understandably, I guess — cross the border and take a look at what’s going on in Ukraine,” he said. The White House has said it did not explore a visit to Ukraine.
For example, Duda has asked the US to speed up and simplify the procedures allowing Ukrainians with family in the US to come to the country.
More than 3.5 million refugees have now fled Ukraine, according to data from the United Nations refugee agency released on Tuesday. A vast majority of those refugees have fled to Ukraine’s western neighbors across Europe.
Poland, which borders Ukraine to the west, has registered more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees crossing into the country, though not all refugees who have entered Poland remain there.
Additionally, the US has continued to reject Poland’s proposal to facilitate the transfer of its MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine. And the Polish President has called for a more permanent NATO defense posture in the country along with an international peacekeeping force in Ukraine.
US officials have not warmed to the peacekeeping proposition, suggesting it could violate Biden’s red line of keeping US troops out of the conflict.
During Friday’s meeting with humanitarian workers, Duda said Biden’s “presence here sends a great signal and evidence of unity — unity within NATO.”
The Polish President added that Biden’s visit “demonstrates a huge support and also a big significance attached by the United States to the stability and world peace, to reinstating the peace where difficult situations are happening in places where somebody resorts to acts of aggression against other democratic and free nations — as it is happening today against Ukraine where the Russian aggression, unfortunately, happening for a month now is effect.”
This story has been updated with additional developments on Saturday.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Sam Fossum contributed to this report.
