Obama Reassures Eastern European Allies of US Commitment
U.S. President Barack Obama assured Poland and its eastern European neighbors on Tuesday that the U.S. commitment to their security was sacrosanct at the start of a four-day trip meant to show U.S. resolve after the Russian intervention in Ukraine.
Standing with Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, Obama said the U.S. plans to send more military equipment and rotate additional American troops into the region. He called on lawmakers back in Washington to provide the $1 billion in funding to sustain the effort.
If approved, the funding for the European Reassurance Initiative will be used to increase military exercises and training missions on the continent, as well as rotations of air and ground forces, the White House said.
Officials said Obama was also seeking to ramp up U.S. Navy participation in NATO deployments in the Black and Baltic seas, plus working to boost the military capacity of non-NATO countries that sit on Russia’s border, including Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova.
NATO praised a United States announcement on Tuesday that it would review its military presence in Europe as a result of Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, saying that Washington’s leadership in the alliance was needed.
“I really appreciate the American leadership in taking reassurance measures. The United States has reacted swiftly after Russia’s illegal military actions in Ukraine,” NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters in Brussels ahead of a meeting of NATO members’ defense ministers.
(VOA)
