US president heads to Europe to discuss tougher sanctions on Russia

Europe, News, US March 23, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

U.S. President Joseph Biden departs for Belgium and Poland to coordinate with Western partners on the next phase of economic, humanitarian, and military assistance to Ukraine.

Biden’s visit aims to reaffirm the U.S. global leadership, strengthen the NATO alliance, and reassure Ukraine that the United States remains committed to supporting its allies as Russia intensifies its attack on Ukraine.

President Biden will attend an emergency NATO summit, meet with G7 leaders and address the EU leaders at the European Council session on March 24.

According to the U.S. president’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Biden “will have the opportunity to coordinate on the next phase of military assistance to Ukraine. He will join our partners in imposing further sanctions on Russia and tightening the existing sanctions to crack down on evasion and to ensure robust enforcement,”

The U.S. president will fly to Warsaw on March 25 to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda and will “engage with U.S. troops who are now helping to defend NATO territory”, and. “meet with experts involved in the humanitarian response”, Sullivan said.

Biden administration is working on plans to impose new sanctions on Russia and will discuss new measures with the European partners to tighten sanctions on Moscow, according to the U.S. officials.

The U.S. and European partners are expected to announce even more aggressive economic sanctions against Moscow during the summits in Europe.

*^{U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference at the NATO summit at NATO headquarters in Brussels, on June 14, 2021. (Image Credit: Patrick Semansky/AP)}*

According to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, the U.S. is “constantly monitoring for that potential contingency” and “will be consulting with allies and partners on that potential contingency … and discussing what our potential response are.”

Sullivan further stated that President Biden will seek to “reinforce the incredible unity we built with allies and partners in response to Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine and to consult on next steps.”

Jake Sullivan highlighted that “one of the key elements of that announcement will focus not just on adding new sanctions, but on ensuring that there is joint effort to crack down on evasion, on sanctions busting, on any attempt by any country to help Russia basically undermine, weaken, or get around the sanctions. That is an important part of this next phase.”

The U.S. and European nations will also work on “longer-term adjustments to NATO force posture on the eastern flank… He [Biden] will announce joint action on enhancing European energy security and reducing Europe’s dependence on Russian gas at long last,” Sullivan added.

The U.S. president’s decision to visit Warsaw is seen as a significant step, as Poland shares borders with Ukraine and hosted more than two million Ukrainian refugees since the Russia-Ukraine conflict began.

“Poland has taken the brunt of the humanitarian impact outside of Ukraine in terms of the refugee flows. Poland is where the United States has surged a significant number of forces to be able to help defend and shore up the eastern flank. Poland has to contend not just with the war in Ukraine but with Russia’s military deployments to Belarus, which have fundamentally changed the security equation there,” Sullivan said.