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To learn more about our privacy policy Click hereBiden expressed understanding and offered support to Zelensky ahead of their meeting in Vilnius, which saw each leader offer each other praise after some earlier tension.
“I hope you all got a sense today from all my colleagues how much public support you have. It’s real and I hope we finally have put to bed the notion about whether or not Ukraine is welcome in NATO. It’s going to happen. We’re all moving in the right direction. I think it’s just a matter of getting by the next few months,” the American president told his Ukrainian counterpart.
Biden noted that Russia’s war has been ongoing more than 500 days, as he heralded the courage of Ukraine’s people.
“The whole world has seen your courage,” he said. “You set a whole example to the entire world of what constitutes genuine courage. … I think it’s your resilience and the resolve has been a model for the whole world to see.”
Biden praised Zelensky’s leadership as he said he “looks forward” to eventually celebrating his country’s accession to the alliance.
“I look forward to having the meeting, celebrating your official, official membership in NATO,” he said.
“The bad news for you is: We’re not going anywhere, you’re stuck with us,” he joked, prompting rare laughter from his counterpart.
In turn, Zelensky offered heartfelt thanks to the US for standing “shoulder to shoulder” with Ukraine from the first days of the war. He also acknowledged criticism facing the US following Biden’s controversial decision last week to send his country cluster munitions.ยูฟ่า800เว็บแม่
“It’s very simple to criticize, for example, cluster munitions,” he said, calling it a “difficult political decision.”
“This decision will help us to save us,” he said of the munitions, thanking Biden for his “huge support.”
He thanked the American people more broadly.
“You spend this money for our lives. And I think that we save the lives for Europe and for all the world,” he said.
The war, Biden said, is “bringing the world together. It’s a hell of a price to pay. But it’s bringing the world together, and people are realizing that we just can’t stand by and let this kind of aggression occur.”
The meeting was draped by a 15-year wait for Ukraine to get answers on just when it can join the allied group. NATO first welcomed Ukraine’s membership aspirations during a 2008 meeting in Bucharest, Romania, but little progress has been made and the timeline remains uncertain.
“Ukraine and many NATO allies are calling for a clearer pathway, a roadmap, some kind of statement at Vilnius that will show Ukraine what it needs to do to get into the alliance. And I think that is very important to happen for the alliance to be credible. Given the stakes of the war … given what the Ukrainians have endured, if we walk out of Vilnius without a firmer sense of what it will take to get Ukraine into the alliance, I worry about the alliance’s credibility,” said Chris Skaluba, director of the Transatlantic Security Initiative in the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.