Joe Biden says US will defend ‘every inch of NATO’ – as Moscow welcomes China’s help in ‘resolving’ Ukraine war
Joe Biden has said the US will defend “literally every inch of NATO” in the face of Russian aggression – as Moscow welcomed China having a more active role in “resolving” the Ukraine war.
The US president has met leaders from the Bucharest Nine – a collection of nations in the most eastern parts of the NATO alliance that came together in response to Putin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
The alliance includes Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
The countries have expressed concerns that Mr Putin could launch military action against them next if he is successful in Ukraine.
Biden warns freedom is at stake in NATO meeting – follow live updates
“You’re the frontlines of our collective defence,” Mr Biden said of the group.
“And you know, better than anyone, what’s at stake in this conflict. Not just for Ukraine, but for the freedom of democracies throughout Europe and around the world.”
He pledged that NATO’s mutual-defence pact is “sacred” and that “we will defend literally every inch of NATO”.
Vladimir Putin greets China’s foreign policy chief Wang Yi in Moscow. Pic: AP
China’s top diplomat meets Putin in Russia
Meanwhile, Russia has welcomed Beijing taking a more active role in efforts to “resolve” the war after China’s top diplomat Wang Yi met Vladimir Putin in Russia.
Following the meeting, Mr Putin said he was looking forward to a visit to Moscow by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
No other countries could influence the relationship between China and Russia, he added.
Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Mr Wang’s trip had shown Moscow and Beijing agreed on many issues.
Ms Zakharova praised China’s “balanced approach” towards the war.
“We welcome China’s readiness to play a positive role in resolving the Ukrainian crisis,” Ms Zakharova said.
Mr Wang was quoted in Russian state media as saying China will “firmly adhere to an objective and impartial position and play a constructive role in the political settlement of the crisis”.
China has refused to criticise the invasion of Ukraine while condemning sanctions imposed on Russia.
In return, Russia has supported China amid tensions with the US over Taiwan.
Russia is due to begin military exercises with China in South Africa on Friday and has sent a frigate equipped with new generation hypersonic cruise missiles.
A Russian officer said Moscow would fire artillery, but not the missiles, whose speed makes them difficult to shoot down.
Putin ‘proud’ of those fighting in Ukraine
The top Chinese diplomat’s visit to Russia came as Mr Putin spoke at a huge rally in Moscow.
He said Russia is “proud of those who are fighting in Ukraine to defend the fatherland”, adding that the “whole country” supports them.
Chants of “Russia, Russia, Russia” were heard around him as he spoke.
Some 200,000 people had gathered in Moscow to hear Mr Putin’s address.
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‘There is a fight on our historic borders’
Biden criticises Russia’s move to pause nuclear treaty cooperation
Meanwhile, Mr Biden said Mr Putin had made a “big mistake” in deciding to suspend participation in the last nuclear treaty between the US and Russia.
He made the comment to reporters as he arrived at the presidential palace in Warsaw for a summit of the Bucharest Nine countries.
Moscow has insisted its decision to pull out of the New START treaty does not raise the risk of nuclear war.
The move is expected to have an immediate impact on US visibility into Russian nuclear activities as it allowed each side to conduct up to 18 inspections of strategic nuclear weapons sites each year.
Biden wants to project strength, resolve and unity
Joe Biden is putting diplomatic weight behind all the fine words and imagery of this week.
The White House says he wants to project strength, resolve and unity. After his surprise trip to Kyiv and passionate rallying cry for freedom in this speech in Warsaw, he is meeting allies.
They want reassurance that the US understands their anxieties and stands with them in the face of renewed Russian aggression in Ukraine and elsewhere.
The meeting of the Bucharest Nine countries on NATO’s eastern flank followed Vladimir Putin’s ominous speech in Moscow.
He delivered another perverse view of history, saying NATO started the war, then announced Russia’s suspension from the START nuclear arms treaty in a major blow for nuclear arms reduction efforts.
The move is being seen in western capitals as more nuclear bullying by the Russian president as the war enters another year.
Joe Biden condemned the move as a mistake before meeting his central European allies.
The treaty also imposes a cap on the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the US and Russia can deploy.
Russia has said it is not withdrawing from the pact altogether and would respect the caps on nuclear weapons set under the treaty.
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“I do not believe that the decision to suspend the New START Treaty brings us closer to nuclear war,” deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said, according to the Interfax news agency.
Despite the foreign minister’s comments, Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev said the world was “on the verge of a global conflict”.
“If the US wants Russia’s defeat, we have the right to defend ourselves with any weapons, including nuclear,” he wrote.
Speaking of Russia decision to pause its cooperation in the New START treaty, Mr Biden said: “It’s a big mistake.”
The remark, and his promise that the US would protect eastern NATO territory, came a day after he gave a highly-anticipated speech in the gardens of the Royal Castle in Warsaw.
Mr Biden warned that Russian aggression, if unchecked, wouldn’t stop at Ukraine’s borders. “Appetites of the autocrat cannot be appeased,” he said. “They must be opposed.”
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‘Putin left with his forces in disarray’
He also met Moldovan President Maia Sandu in Warsaw, who last week claimed Moscow was behind a plot to overthrow her country’s government using external saboteurs.
She spoke out after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country had intercepted plans by Russian secret services to destroy Moldova. Those claims were later confirmed by Moldovan intelligence officials.
Meanwhile, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the right-wing populist leader who argued last week that the European Union is partly to blame for prolonging Russia’s war in Ukraine, skipped the Bucharest Nine meeting with Mr Biden.
President Katalin Novak attended instead.
‘We must break the cycle of Russian aggression’
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who attended the meeting, said: “We don’t know when the war will end, but when it does, we need to ensure that history does not repeat itself.”
Pointing to past Russian actions in Georgia and Ukraine, he said: “We cannot allow Russia to continue to chip away at European security. We must break the cycle of Russian aggression.”
Meanwhile, Kyiv has said there can be no talk of peace with Russian troops in Ukraine.
World
Trump criticises Putin after potentially ‘historic’ meeting with Zelenskyy before Pope’s funeral
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Follow live updates: 200,000 mourn at Vatican
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish armed forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening.
“The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defence systems,” they said in a post on X.
On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
Leaning forward hands together in their laps, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy stare at each other in one photo.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.
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