Joe Biden in Poland: a capital visit for Warsaw and its neighbors

US President Joe Biden during a meeting with the Group of Nine on February 22 in Warsaw.

AP - Evan Vucci

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

After a surprise visit to kyiv and two days in Poland, Joe Biden returns to the United States.

For three days, the American president insisted on his support for Ukraine and on the importance of NATO's eastern flank in the fight against Vladimir Putin's Russia.

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With our correspondent in Warsaw,

If Joe Biden made no decisive announcement, his visit to Poland was still very important for Warsaw and its neighbors.

Because during his stay, the American president greatly reassured.

Ukraine, first of all, by promising during

that the United States would support it until the end of the war.

Poland too, assuring that Washington will defend it, whatever happens. 

Because if Vladimir Putin has multiplied

over the past two days against Ukraine and Westerners, Joe Biden has responded strongly to him.

And by using strong dead against the Kremlin, he sent a message to the whole world: the United States is indeed here, and it will fight for freedom and democracy until the Russian troops withdraw.

This is no doubt what he told the Bucharest Nine, which brings together the nine countries on NATO's eastern flank (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia), during of their meeting this Wednesday at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw. 

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By coming to Warsaw, Joe Biden endorsed Poland's position within the Atlantic Alliance.

A hub for military and humanitarian aid, the country has also made enormous efforts to welcome refugees and build a more powerful army.

For that, the President of the United States wanted to say thank you to the Poles, who returned him well by welcoming him like a star.

In three days, he made the kyiv-Warsaw-Washington axis the main axis of transatlantic unity and cooperation for years to come.

A well-stocked shopping list

With our regional correspondent,

In Warsaw, the Baltic presidents handed Joe Biden a hefty shopping list: aerial surveillance systems, helicopter gunships and rocket launchers.

Everything that the Balts are sorely lacking and that they may have difficulty acquiring despite rising military budgets.

Estonia has just adopted a new concept for national security which plans to devote 3% of domestic product to defence.

This equipment could be stationed in the region, rotating between the three countries.

Thus, the security of the Alliance's eastern flank would be strengthened.

This is the decision awaited by the Baltic countries at the NATO summit to be held in early July in Vilnius.

If the Balts think of them, they never forget Ukraine and they got the message across.

This summer in Vilnius, kyiv must obtain guarantees of rapprochement with NATO.

We could thus forget the failure of 2013, when the signing of the association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union failed.

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• UNITED STATES

• Joe Biden

• Poland

• Russia

• Ukraine