During his time in Belgium, the White House said Biden is scheduled to visit NATO headquarters and address a summit of alliance leaders. He will also attend and make remarks at a meeting of G7 leaders, hold a bilateral meeting with European Council President Charles Michel and attend and make remarks at a European Council summit before he starts the day with concludes with a press conference. After his first leg of the journey in Brussels, Biden will travel to Warsaw in Poland.
The trip is a crucial opportunity for Biden to reassert United States leadership on the global stage amid a war that is raising concerns among NATO’s eastern allies. And it will be a test of what global alliances that have weakened in recent years can collectively achieve in the post-WWII and post-Cold War era.
The US and NATO allies are expected to launch several new efforts to punish Russia for its war on Ukraine during Thursday’s emergency talks.
NATO leaders will approve the deployment of four additional battle groups in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia at their summit on Thursday, US Ambassador to NATO Julie Smith said on Wednesday.
NATO leaders are expected to agree to strengthen the Alliance’s stance, including by strengthening NATO forces in the eastern portion of the Alliance, strengthening cyber defenses and expanding Alliance exercises.
Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday the administration believes right now they “have an effective posture today for what’s needed today,” but he added that Biden and NATO allies have “longer-term.” Adjustments to NATO Forces in the East” flank.”
US and European officials have indicated they will look into ways to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian energy.
Sullivan said Wednesday that the matter will be a “key talking point” between Biden and other leaders at Thursday’s G7 and EU summits and is a “top priority” for them. He said leaders had weighed a “practical roadmap” to end Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and natural gas. Sullivan said the US would try to increase shipments of liquefied natural gas in Europe in the short term, although he did not formulate a concrete plan.
How will Biden lead?
Thursday’s summits could serve as a moment for Biden to reassert America’s leadership of the paralyzed NATO alliance, which he hoped to restore as a presidential candidate.
There will be several speeches as well as a press conference where the President is expected to lay out the US next steps. But ahead of Air Force One’s arrival in Europe, the government announced a series of new efforts that the US will undertake or consider in response to Russia.
In Brussels, Biden is expected to unveil new sanctions against Russian politicians and oligarchs. And in addition to discussing NATO troop retention on the eastern flank, he will discuss contingency plans for Russia’s potential use of chemical or nuclear weapons with the groups he meets with, Sullivan said.
The US is also considering changes to its own military stance in Eastern Europe. The Pentagon has presented the White House with a number of options for potential additional US troops in Eastern Europe ahead of the president’s trip, according to a US official. Biden could announce changes to troop posture after his Thursday meetings, although any announcement would depend on talks with allies and is ongoing.
Biden is expected to announce sanctions on hundreds of Russians serving in the country’s lower legislative body, the Duma, an official familiar with the announcement said. The US had already sanctioned some members of the panel, but this week’s announcement will add to the list.
Biden will also make additional human rights commitments “to respond to the growing influx of refugees from Ukraine,” Sullivan said.
There are also more symbolic US actions – on Wednesday, ahead of Biden’s arrival in Brussels, the US government officially declared that members of the Russian armed forces had committed war crimes in Ukraine.
Is Zelensky performing?
Although Ukraine is not a member of NATO, the leaders of the alliance have been discussing whether and how President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could possibly attend the summit this week.
Since the war began, Zelenskyy, while remaining in his homeland, has made a series of evocative virtual addresses to various government bodies, urging the West to do more to counter Russian forces. But the country’s lack of NATO membership has allowed member states to limit their interventions to further defend Ukraine, which borders NATO’s eastern flank.
Zelensky has asked Biden to visit Kyiv and suggested making it a dramatic show of support, but the option was never explored in the White House. However, Biden will travel to Poland on Friday, which borders Ukraine and has taken in millions of Ukrainian refugees.
How will Putin react to the western united front?
The Kremlin issued several warnings against NATO this week, suggesting that Russian President Vladimir Putin is furious with people in Ukraine who want to be part of the alliance.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday that Putin has not yet achieved his goals in Ukraine. Peskov, who says he is in daily contact with Putin, said the aim remains to get rid of Ukraine’s military potential and that occupation is not among the stated goals of the operation.
When asked if he was confident that Putin would not use the nuclear option, Peskov replied: “If it is an existential threat to our country, then it can be used in accordance with our concept (of internal security).”
Peskov separately warned this week that launching a NATO peacekeeping mission in Ukraine would be “reckless” and “extremely dangerous” after Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawieck said at the NATO summit that a “proposal for a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine is formally presented”.
The US and NATO also believe Belarus may “soon” join Russia in its war against Ukraine, US and NATO officials told CNN, and that the country is already taking steps to do so.
“Putin needs support. Anything would help,” said a NATO military man on Monday.
Russia claims it wants to take part in talks with global alliances. Responding to unconfirmed reports that the US and Western allies are considering whether Russia can remain in the Group of 20, Russia’s ambassador in Jakarta said Wednesday that Putin “wants to go” to Indonesia for November’s G20 summit.
Will NATO Actions Be Effective?
Biden and NATO leaders have claimed that the war in Ukraine has united NATO member countries more than ever, but Thursday’s meetings could be a test of strength for NATO’s capabilities.
While NATO is unified in its actions to respond to Putin, it has yet to avert Russia’s months-long war in Ukraine.
An official at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, the headquarters of the NATO alliance’s military operations in Europe, told reporters Wednesday that Putin’s war in Ukraine has “absolutely jeopardized” the NATO alliance and its member states. Another headquarters official said the war has created a “new reality” for NATO allies.
“We know from Russia that Putin and his closest circle are absolutely ruthless people. They don’t care about human lives. They lie openly to cover up their military operations. Putin has completely changed his language towards the West, and he has a deep hatred of our societies, of our values, so we really consider him dangerous and the alliance is absolutely at risk,” the first official said on Wednesday.
Zelenskyy claimed earlier this month that NATO’s Article 5, the principle of collective defence, is weaker than ever. He hinted that some of the 30 members of the alliance would not act if the Russian military moved beyond Ukraine’s borders because they “intimidated themselves” over fears of another world war.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Jennifer Hansler, Barbara Starr, Kaitlan Collins, Sarah Dean, Arnaud Siad, Natasha Bertrand, and Claire Calzonetti contributed to this report.