Washington, March 25 : The ted States President Joe Biden has said that NATO has never been more ted than it is today in an alliance meeting, a statement by US Department of Defence said. The US President participated in an extraordinary summit meeting at the alliance headquarters on Thursday, just one month after Russian President Vladimir Putin broke the peace of Europe by invading Ukraine. The US president noted that the day after the Russian invasion, NATO held a meeting. “At that time, my overwhelming objective in wanting that summit was to have absolute ty on three key important issues among our NATO and European allies,” he said. “First was to support Ukraine with military and humanitarian assistance, the second was to impose the most significant economic sanction regime to cripple Putin’s economy and p sh him for his actions and the “third, was to fortify the eastern flank of our NATO allies who were obviously very, very concerned, and … worried what would happen,” he further said. “The US has committed to provide over two billion dollar in military equipment to Ukraine since I became president, anti-air systems, anti-armor systems, amm tion. And our weapons are flowing into Ukraine as I speak”, he informed. Biden also announced one billion dollar in humanitarian relief for Ukrainians affected by the war. “Many Ukrainian refugees will well wish to stay in Europe closer to their homes, but we also will welcome 100,000 Ukrainians to the US with a focus on re ting families,” Biden stated. He also said the US will invest 320 million dollar to bolster democratic resilience and defend human rights in Ukraine and neighboring countries. “The US in tandem with the European on, Canada and Japan will also look at the effect Putin’s war will have on food and energy security. The nations are also sanctioning more than 300 members of the Russian Duma, oligarchs and defence companies that fuel the Russian war machine,” he further stated. Finally, Biden said that Putin launched his invasion absolutely sure that NATO would split apart. Instead, the US deployed more than 20,000 troops to Europe. Other allies stepped up and moved forces to the eastern border of the alliance. “NATO established … four new battle groups in Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia to reinforce the Eastern Front,” The US President asserted. “Putin was banking on NATO being split. My early conversation with him in December and early January, it was clear to me he didn’t think we could sustain this cohesion. Putin is getting exactly the opposite [of] what he intended to have as a consequence of going into Ukraine,” the statement added. VP JNA
