Biden Meets Spanish PM Ahead of NATO Summit

U.S. President Joe Biden met with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Tuesday, June 28, before making remarks to the media as leaders gathered for the NATO summit in Madrid.

Top of the agenda for leaders in meetings Wednesday and Thursday is strengthening defenses against Russia and supporting Ukraine.

U.S. President Joe Biden, who arrived with the aim of stiffening the resolve of any wavering allies, said that NATO allies were "standing together in our shared security".

"I said before the war started if Putin attacked Ukraine the United States would enhance our force posture in Europe and respond to the reality of a new European security environment," he said.

President Sanchez in turn said Putin's invasion of Ukraine in February "represents a violation of international law", and said his actions confirms Spain's backing of "a rules-based international order".

Seven decades after it was founded, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is meeting in Madrid this week with an urgent need to reassert its original mission: preventing Russian aggression against Western allies.

Until late last year, only around 5,000 NATO troops were deployed in the Baltic states and Poland on a rotational basis.

Now hundreds of thousands of troops are on heightened alert, with 100,000 U.S. troops in Europe, and 40,000 under direct NATO command, supported by air and naval power.

The summit is set to agree to stockpile weapons and equipment in Eastern Europe and to dramatically increase the number of troops based in the region, or on standby in their own countries, as a rapid-reaction force.

READ MOERE HERE: www.voanews.com/a/nato-leaders-arrive-in-madrid-for-crucial-summit-on-countering-russia-china/6636472.html

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