Biden pledges support to NATO’s eastern bloc

WARSAW, Poland — President Joe Biden closed out his wartime visit to Europe on Wednesday, working to shore up partnerships with allies on NATO’s perilous eastern flank — even as Russia’s Vladimir Putin was drawing closer to China for help as his invasion of Ukraine neared the one-year mark.

Biden’s meeting with leaders of the Bucharest Nine nations in Warsaw came at the conclusion of a whirlwind, four-day visit to Ukraine and Poland meant to reassure allies that U.S. support in fending off Russia isn’t waning.

In dramatic counterpoint, Putin on Wednesday played host in Moscow to Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior foreign policy official, as U.S. intelligence warned Beijing is considering supplying arms and ammunition to the worndown Russian military.

The flexing of alliances was a fresh indication both sides are digging in for prolonged conflict in Ukraine with the fighting expected to intensify with the arrival of spring.

Biden’s trip had provided yet another moment of telling counterprogramming Tuesday when he delivered a ringing speech on Western unity in Warsaw, a day after he swept into Kyiv unannounced for a visit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. As Biden spoke in Poland, Putin announced Russia was suspending its participation in the last remaining U.S.-Russia nuclear arms control treaty.

Biden called that departure “a big mistake.” The exit is expected to have an immediate impact on U.S. awareness of Russian nuclear activities.

Biden met Wednesday with leaders of the Bucharest Nine, the nations in the easternmost parts of the NATO alliance that came together in response to Putin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. They include Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

“You’re the frontlines of our collective defense,” Biden told them. “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.”

These countries have worried Putin could move to take military action against them next if successful in Ukraine. Biden responded by pledging NATO’s mutual defense pact is “sacred” and that “we will defend literally every inch of NATO.”