This week, President Biden will go to Europe to meet with some of America’s closest friends, in his most direct attempt yet to galvanise opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
His diplomatic week will begin on Monday with a phone conversation with the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy. He’ll next go to Brussels on Wednesday for a NATO emergency meeting on how to respond to the conflict.
A request from Poland to form an international peacekeeping operation for Ukraine will be one of the most potentially controversial subjects at the NATO gathering. While NATO has carried out similar operations in Europe in the past, those missions were completed after the combat had subsided.
While the US delivers arms to Ukraine, Â President Joe Biden has rejected proposals for a no-fly zone over the nation, believing that it would bring the US closer to a direct conflict with Russia. Officials from NATO and the United States have also said that no soldiers would be sent to Ukraine.
Mr. Biden will attend a European Council conference and a G7 meeting organised by Germany later Thursday to consider imposing new penalties against Russian President Vladimir V. Putin. They’ll also talk about ways to assist the almost three million refugees who have left Ukraine.
On Friday, he will go to Poland, a NATO member that borders Ukraine and is a major refugee destination. He will meet with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda to address the war’s humanitarian situation. Mr. Biden will not go to Ukraine during the trip, according to Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary.
She added on Twitter, “The trip will be focused on continuing to unite the globe in favour of the Ukrainian people and against President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.”
Mr. Biden’s trip comes after many rounds of discussions between Russia and Ukraine, including a meeting between the two nations’ foreign ministers in Turkey earlier this month. While such talks haven’t made much headway, Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, claimed Sunday that the two sides were close to reaching a deal and that he was optimistic about the possibility of a cease-fire.
Officials from the United States have questioned if Russia is a real participant in the discussions and discounted the chances of a settlement.
