Biden told members of the new media that the USA commitment to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was reaffirmed in Warsaw, saying any concern the U.S.is somehow disengaged is “simply not true”.
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The Vice President emphasized the unshakable US commitment to the security of the Baltic states and welcomed the steps Latvia is taking to strengthen its national defense, including by increasing defense spending to 2 percent of GDP by 2018. Biden also encouraged the countries to not be concerned with comments made by US Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump. Our sacred honor is at stake”, Biden said after a Riga Castle meeting with the three Baltic presidents: “Raimonds Vejonis of Latvia, Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania and Toomas Hendrik Ilves of Estonia.
“We mean what we say”.
“The fact that you occasionally hear something from a presidential candidate in the other party”, was “nothing that should be taken seriously”, Biden said. This prompted a furious response in all three Baltic capitals.
In July, NATO leaders agreed to deploy military forces to the Baltic states and eastern Poland for the first time and increase air and sea patrols to reassure allies in the region anxious about the threat from Russian Federation. The former Soviet Union occupied all three nations from the final months of World War II to 1991.
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On Wednesday, Biden travels to Turkey where he will meet President Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim before visiting Sweden to discuss Europe’s asylum crisis the day after.
