President Biden is set to travel to Brussels, Belgium, next week to attend a NATO summit on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said of the March 24 meeting: “We will address Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, our strong support for Ukraine, and further strengthening NATO’s deterrence and defense.”
I have convened an extraordinary Summit on 24 March at #NATO HQ. We will address #Russia’s invasion of #Ukraine, our strong support for Ukraine, and further strengthening NATO’s deterrence & defence. At this critical time, North America & Europe must continue to stand together.
— Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) March 15, 2022
Psaki said Biden will “reaffirm our ironclad commitment to our NATO allies” at next week’s summit.
Biden will also meet with the European Union Council in Brussels “to discuss our shared concerns about Ukraine, including transatlantic efforts to impose economic costs on Russia, provide humanitarian support to those affected by the violence and address other challenges related to the conflict,” Psaki said.
The EU Council summit will take place on March 24 and 25.
Psaki said the president’s goal for the trip is to “meet in person face to face with his European counterparts” and “talk about and asses where we are at this point in the conflict.”
“We’ve been incredibly aligned to date, that isn’t an accident,” she added.
Psaki’s announcement came on the same day the prime ministers of Poland, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic traveled to Kyiv to show support for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Meanwhile, Russia handed down new sanctions against Biden and other top U.S. officials on Tuesday in retaliation for U.S. sanctions imposed against Russian leadership.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are among those impacted by the new sanctions, according to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry obtained by the Associated Press.