The US perceives its obligation to protect NATO partners as “sacred”.
This was the announcement of the US President Biden during the meeting with the Polish President Andrzej Duda, according to Bloomberg.
“We perceive the 5th Article as a sacred obligation,” - said Biden, referring to the principles of collective defense stipulated in the 5th Article of the Washington Agreement.
According to New York Times information, President Biden also announced multiple times that surprises should be avoided.
“It is important to constantly stay in touch to have understanding what actions each of us wants to take in relation of Ukraine”, - he said to Mr. Duda.
Lately, the relationships between USA and Poland were somewhat strained because of Warsaw’s intentions to transfer fighter jets Mig-29 from Soviet times to Ukraine, through the US military base in Germany. The US declined this proposal.
According to The Wall Street Journal, President Biden put a personal veto on the fighter jets transfer to Ukraine, worried this might provoke Putin.
In its turn, Andrzej Duda confirmed that Poland is a ”strong and reliable partner”. He also added that his country intends to buy more arms from the US however he did not go into details.
As a reminder, today the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba and the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznychenko met with the US State Secretary Anthony Blinken and US Minister of Defense Lloyd Austin. President Biden also joined the conversation.