:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/CYAU44GTLP6GWDSCDPJHRO4DTY.jpg "Biden to meet with allies on NATO's eastern flank 1")
WARSAW (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden assured allies on NATO’s eastern flank on Wednesday that his administration is fully aware of the threats and impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, following a four-day visit to Poland and Ukraine.
Before leaving Warsaw, Biden will speak with leaders of the Bucharest Nine, a NATO alliance of Far Eastern countries that formed after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
The concerns of the Bucharest Nine grew as the war in Ukraine dragged on. Many fear that President Vladimir Putin will take military action against them if he succeeds in Ukraine. The alliance countries are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
“When Russia invaded, it wasn’t just a test for Ukraine. The whole world has faced a historic test,” Biden said in a speech from the gardens of the Royal Castle in Warsaw on the occasion one year after the Russian invasion. “It was a test for the Europe. It was a test for America. It was a test for NATO. It was a test for all democracies.
Concerned about NATO members that this could happen to them, Biden on Tuesday reaffirmed the United States’ strong commitment to the mutual defense treaty and the defense of Ukraine.
“The appetites of the autocrat cannot be appeased,” Biden said. “You must oppose them.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the right-wing populist leader who said last week that the European Union was partly responsible for the protracted war, has been reluctant to sanction Moscow and arm Ukraine. Orban missed the meeting with Biden, and in his place was President Katalin Novák.