Ukraine war: Joe Biden to travel to Europe for talks on Russian invasion
- The trip was announced shortly before the US president signed a bill providing US$13.6 billion in additional military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine
- The leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia have headed to Kyiv by train to show their support despite the security risks
US President Joe Biden will travel to Europe next week for face-to-face talks with European leaders about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced on Tuesday.
Biden will meet the European leaders at an extraordinary Nato summit in Brussels on March 24. He will also attend a scheduled European Council summit, where efforts to impose sanctions and further humanitarian efforts are under way.
“While he’s there, his goal is to meet in person face-to-face with his European counterparts and talk about, assess where we are at this point in the conflict in the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. We’ve been incredibly aligned to date,” Psaki said. “That doesn’t happen by accident. The president is a big believer in face-to-face diplomacy. So it’s an opportunity to do exactly that.”
The White House announced the president’s travel shortly before Biden on Tuesday signed a bill providing US$13.6 billion in additional military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine as part of a US$1.5 trillion government spending measure.
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Biden said at the bill signing ceremony that the US was “moving urgently to further augment the support to the brave people of Ukraine, as they defend their country”.
