Image: (APA/AFP/MANDEL NGAN)
“A meeting with President Zelenskyy is currently not planned for this trip,” said the communications director of the National Security Council, John Kirby, on Friday in Washington. When asked if the president plans to travel across the border to neighboring Ukraine, Kirby said, “No.” For safety reasons, such trips are usually not announced in advance. Kirby said stations in other parts of Poland are also not planned.
Biden is expected in Poland on Tuesday and Wednesday – just before the first anniversary of the start of the war in neighboring Ukraine. In recent weeks there has been speculation that Biden could possibly combine the trip to Poland with a visit to Ukraine. Various heads of state and government as well as ministers from other countries had already visited Ukraine in the past few months since the war began – some on several occasions. Several members of the government were also there from the USA, as was Biden’s wife Jill. The US President has not yet been to Ukraine. It generally has significantly higher security requirements.
Kirby said the President wanted to pledge further support for Ukraine’s trip and also thanked Poland and the Polish people for their contribution to the crisis. Poland has provided Kiev with billions in aid and taken in more than 1.5 million refugees from Ukraine.
In the Polish capital of Warsaw, Biden plans to meet with President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday and give a speech in front of the Warsaw Royal Castle. Biden also wants to meet there with representatives of other Eastern European NATO countries on Wednesday.
The trip is part of a whole series of US foreign policy talks over the next few days around the anniversary of the start of the war. US Vice President Kamala Harris and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken are currently at the Munich Security Conference, where the focus is on the Ukraine war. Biden receives Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the White House on March 3. Kirby said Biden also plans to have various phone calls with partners such as the heads of government of France, Great Britain and Italy in the coming week.
Source: Nachrichten
