WARSAW (AP) – President Joe Biden said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin made a “huge mistake” by suspending his country’s participation in the last remaining U.S.-Russia nuclear arms control treaty. The President of the United States was in Poland, reassured his NATO allies in the east that the United States would stand by them in Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine.
Biden, in his first comments since Putin’s announcement on Tuesday, denounced Russia’s decision to withdraw from the treaty known as the New START. The decision to suspend Russian cooperation on inspections of the treaty’s nuclear warheads and missiles follows Russia’s cancellation of talks aimed at salvaging the deal late last year.
Biden’s comments came at a meeting with the leaders of his Nine in Bucharest, a gathering of the easternmost countries in his NATO alliance that united in response to Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, to Poland and Ukraine. Served at the end of his tumultuous four-day visit. Ukraine. Fear grows among Bucharest Nine as the war in Ukraine drags on. Many fear that if Putin succeeds in Ukraine, the next step will be military action against them. The Alliance includes Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
Biden on Tuesday addressed concerns that NATO members may be next, pledging a mutual defense treaty and America’s ironclad commitment to defending Ukraine.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a right-wing populist leader who blamed the European Union in part for prolonging Russia’s war with Ukraine last week, has refused sanctions against Russia and the arming of Kiev Orban was absent from the meeting with Biden and was replaced by President Katalin Novak.
Nevertheless, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis claimed that “B9 is stronger than ever”.
Putin made a speech on Tuesday and took action against Ukraine and its Western allies. The Russian president also announced that Moscow would stop participating in the US-Russia arms control treaty. The move is expected to have an immediate impact on US visibility into Russia’s nuclear activities, but the agreement was already on life support.
Biden met with Moldovan President Maia Sandu in Warsaw on Tuesday. President Maia Sandu last week accused Moscow of conspiring to overthrow its government using outside saboteurs. Sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania, one of Europe’s poorest countries in Eastern Europe, with historical ties to Russia, wants to join the 27-member EU. In his remarks, Biden backed Moldova’s application for EU membership.
“I am proud to stand with you and the freedom-loving people of Moldova,” Biden said of Sandu and her country in a speech Tuesday.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine almost a year ago, Moldova, a former Soviet republic of about 2.6 million people, has sought to forge closer ties with its Western partners. Last June, it was given EU candidate status on the same day as Ukraine. Biden’s speech on the Ukraine war came a day after his surprise visit to Kiev, a grand gesture of solidarity with Ukraine. It was a reaffirmation of Europe’s role in helping the U.S. and was, in part, a stark warning to Putin that the United States would not allow Moscow to defeat Ukraine.
Biden has paid particular attention to Poland’s efforts. The country is home to about 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees, and to Kiev he has pledged $3.8 billion in military and economic aid.
