Iran Press/ America: President Joe Biden opened his three-day visit to a NATO summit Tuesday by pledging to beef up the American military presence in Europe as he denounced Russia’s President Vladimir Putin for trying to wipe out Ukrainian culture in the ongoing war in eastern Europe.
Biden, in talks with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, detailed plans to increase the number of Navy destroyers based in Rota, Spain, from four to six. Biden said the move was one of multiple announcements that he and NATO allies would make to help bolster the alliance in the region during the summit.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the the Rota move will help increase the United States and NATO’s maritime presence. He said that Biden would announce additional moves on Wednesday.
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“The president said before the war started that if Putin invaded Ukraine, the United States and NATO would enhance the force posture on the eastern flank, not just for the duration of the crisis, but to address the long term change in the strategic reality that that would present,” Sullivan added.
Biden is looking to use this week’s NATO summit to shore up allies amid signs of fractures in the western alliance. After heaping an avalanche of sanctions on the Russian economy and funneling billions of dollars of weaponry into the Ukraine in the face of the war in the country, NATO partners are showing signs of strain as the cost of energy and other essential goods has skyrocketed.
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