Biden Meets with Polish Leaders on Russia

18 March 2014

Biden Meets with Polish Leaders on Russia

Vice President Biden, left, met with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk March 18 in Warsaw for talks on Eastern European security following the Crimean vote to join Russia.

Washington — Vice President Biden met at length with Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk on March 18 to discuss Eastern Europe’s security crisis following the Crimean vote to join Russia. On March 18 in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty to annex the Crimean Peninsula into the Russian Federation.

“Russia has offered a variety of arguments to justify what is nothing more than a land grab,” Biden said in Warsaw, Poland. “But the world has seen through Russia’s actions and has rejected the flawed logic behind those actions.”

“The president asked me to come to Warsaw today to reaffirm the United States’ solemn commitment, solemn NATO commitment, and to consult with Poland’s leaders about the situation in Ukraine,” Biden told journalists during press briefing at the prime minister’s Chancellery.

Biden said that the United States and the European Union will impose further economic and political sanctions against Russia for annexing the Crimean Peninsula. “It’s a simple fact that Russia’s political and economic isolation will only increase if it continues down its current path and it will, in fact, see additional sanctions,” he added.

The vice president arrived in Warsaw to meet with Tusk and Poland’s President Bronislaw Komorowski about the referendum held March 16 in Crimea, where voters overwhelmingly agreed to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. Poland, the United States and the international community have condemned the referendum and efforts by Russia to annex the crucial region on the Black Sea as a violation of Ukraine’s constitution.

“This trial, this challenge that we are facing, will not be for a month or a year,” Tusk told journalists. “We are facing a strategic perspective for many years to come.”

Later, Biden traveled to Vilnius for meetings on March 19 with the leaders of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, who are concerned by Russia’s military intervention in Crimea. Poland and the three Baltic nations share borders with Russia, while Poland also borders Ukraine. All four countries are members of the 28-nation NATO alliance.

While in talks with Polish leaders, Biden reassured them that the United States commitment to the NATO alliance is ironclad. “Recent events remind us that the bedrock of our alliance remains collective self-defense, as enshrined in Article 5 of the NATO Treaty,” Biden said.

“Our intent is that NATO emerge from this crisis stronger and more unified than ever,” he added.

The White House announced that during President Obama’s trip to Europe the week of March 24 he will meet with the leaders of the G7 group of nations — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — to consider further responses to Russia.

http://www.msz.gov.pl/en/