U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday welcomed Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Andrzej Duda to the White House to mark the 25th anniversary of Poland’s accession to NATO, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.
"When we stand together, no force on earth is more powerful," Biden told his guests — who are domestic rivals, but are closely aligned on Ukraine — recalling a quote from Madeleine Albright.
The leaders "committed to ensuring continued support of Ukraine’s self-defense against Russia’s war of aggression" the White House said in a readout of the meeting.
Biden shared that the U.S. will move forward with a new $2 billion Foreign Military Financing direct loan to Poland to bolster its security and support its defense modernization using previously appropriated congressional funds. The U.S. will also offer to sell Poland 96 AH-64 Apache helicopters.
"This is a major step to provide Poland's armed forces with cutting-edge capability to defend itself, strengthen NATO interoperability, and further bolster the U.S. defense industry," White House said.
Speaking about Putin's war in Ukraine, Biden said, "as Poland remembers, Russia won't stop at Ukraine. Puting will keep going." He then added, "America's commitment to Poland is iron clad.”
Russia's aggression against Ukraine demonstrated that the United States is “the security leader," Duda told reporters outside the White House.
When asked if they had any message to Putin following the Oval Office meeting, Polish PM Tusk told reporters: "The only message we should send to Moscow is that the West is united more than ever before when it comes to Ukraine."
Politics
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