MADRID – President Joe Biden pledged Wednesday to boost the US military presence in eastern Europe, including establishing a permanent troop presence in Poland, as he gathered Wednesday with other NATO leaders at a summit intended to show resolve against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
“In a moment when Putin has shattered peace in Europe and attacked the very, very tenets of rule-based order, the United States and our allies, we’re going to step up. We’re stepping up,” Biden said at the NATO summit in Madrid.
Biden said the U.S. would also enhance its rotational deployments in the Baltic region, which is comprised of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
The U.S. is also sending two additional F-35 squadrons to the UK, stationing two more destroyers in Spain and will improve defense capabilities in Germany and Italy.
Working with military allies, Biden said the U.S. would help ensure that NATO nations are “ready to meet threats from all directions, across every domain.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said this week the organization would put 300,000 troops on high alert, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. More than 40,000 troops are currently under NATO command.
The U.S. has deployed or extended the deployment of more than 20,000 additional forces to Europe since the start of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine in February, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said on Wednesday.
That brings the number of American service members on the continent to more 100,000, Kirby said.
The latest
- NATO expansion: NATO leaders have formally invited Sweden and Finland to join the alliance. The invitation comes just hours after Turkey dropped its objections to the Nordic nations’ membership. Final approval could still be months away because the legislative bodies of all 30 NATO countries must vote to accept their membership.
- Where’s Biden: He’s participating in closed-door sessions with other heads of state and government of NATO nations and bilateral meetings with U.S. allies.
- What to watch: Biden’s meeting with the Turkish president. The leaders spoke by phone Monday ahead of a face-to-face conversation at the NATO summit.
- What will Biden offer? Celeste Wallander, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, suggested the U.S. may sell Turkey upgraded F-16 fighter jets.
- Challenging China: Biden also held hold a joint meeting with Japan’s Fumio Kishida and South Korea’s Yoon Seok-youl at the summit site. Neither countries are NATO nations, yet they are participating in the summit for the first time.
- On the menu: Visiting leaders will have dinner with President Pedro Sánchez of Spain.
What’s about to happen
NATO nations are building out their strategic concept, a document that will determine what issues the alliance focuses on over the next decade.
Wednesday was the first full day of the summit. Leaders will meet again on Thursday.
What they are saying
- Biden said as he arrived at the NATO gathering site that it will be a “history-making summit,” where leaders will “reaffirm the unity and determination to our alliance to defend every inch NATO territory.”
- The U.S. president said the alliance’s Article Five commitment to protect NATO nations if they are attacked “is sacrosanct.”
- “We mean when we say an attack against one is an attack against all,” Biden said.
- Biden asserted that Finland’s and Sweden’s decision to move away from neutrality to join NATO will make the alliance stronger and more secure.
- President Pedro Sánchez of Spain told leaders at their first group session that entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO “is a milestone” that will make the alliance stronger.
- “The world is looking at us. Let us show them our unity and our cohesion,” he said.
- The Department of Defense said the U.S. will “permanently forward station” the V Corps headquarters and field support battalion in Poland.
- Wallander of…
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