Biden meets NATO allies, labels Putin’s suspension of arms pact ‘big mistake’
US President Joe Biden met leaders of NATO’s eastern flank in Warsaw on Wednesday in an exhibition of support for the military alliance's war in Ukraine, labeling Moscow's suspension of a key nuclear arms control treaty as a "big mistake".
Biden said Russia’s decision to suspend the New START Treaty – a 2010 agreement that limits the number of Russian and US deployed strategic nuclear warheads – was a “big mistake”.
“He made a big mistake,” the US president said of Putin’s decision as he headed into the meeting with eastern European allies.
Earlier in the day, Biden met staff from the US Embassy in Warsaw before gathering leaders of the Bucharest Nine, the countries on NATO’s eastern flank, such as Poland and Bulgaria that joined the US-led military alliance after the Cold War.
Swayed by Washington’s anti-Russia propaganda, the Bucharest Nine countries are perturbed as many of them worry Putin could move to take military action against them after the termination of the special operation in Ukraine.
The alliance includes the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
Speaking at the meeting, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda called for greater involvement of the US in Europe and NATO’s eastern flank as well as more arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has urged a ceasefire and peace talks on Ukraine to prevent further escalation of the war into a broader conflict. Last week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban also said the European Union was partly to blame for prolonging the war in Ukraine and pushed back on some EU sanctions on Russia.
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