US President Joe Biden said, on Wednesday, that Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in the “New START” treaty with Washington was a “grave mistake.”
In response to a question from a journalist about his position on Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in the treaty that provides for the reduction of the number of nuclear weapons, Biden replied: “A grave mistake.”
On Wednesday, both chambers of the Russian parliament approved the decision to suspend participation in the “New START” treaty, a decision announced on Tuesday by President Vladimir Putin and collectively condemned by Western powers.
The US President spoke before a meeting in the Polish capital with the leaders of nine NATO member states from Central and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia) and in the presence of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. .
The meeting, which began just before 14:00 GMT, is mainly devoted to discussing support for Ukraine and reaffirming mutual commitments within NATO.
Before the meeting, Biden referred to Finland’s membership in NATO and stressed that the nine countries participating in the meeting remain “the front line of our collective defence.”
For his part, Jens Stoltenberg declared that it was necessary to “break the cycle of Russian aggression,” adding, “We must maintain and intensify our support for Ukraine and give it what it needs to win.”
“We don’t know when this war will end, but when it does, we have to make sure that history does not repeat itself,” Stoltenberg said.
Joe Biden is scheduled to leave Poland later in the afternoon to fly home.
