President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met today at the White House with Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg of NATO ahead of the June 29-30 NATO Summit in Madrid.
After the meeting, General Stoltenberg said that Finland and Sweden’s decisions to apply for NATO membership are “historic.” He said that “President Putin wanted less NATO so he invaded Ukraine and he is getting more NATO”
On unblocking Turkey’s opposition to the Sweden and Finland applications, he said all three countries are in close contact and will convene in a meeting in the coming days: “Turkey is an important ally,” said Stoltenberg and they are looking to find a “way forward.”
“Wars are by nature unpredictable and therefore we just have to be prepared for the long haul.” The war is one of “attrition” on Ukraine’s part, he said, and added that Russia is taking “high casualties.”
Commenting on whether Ukraine can win or will need to concede territory for the war to end in peace negotiations, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, “It’s for them to make those hard decisions.
“I am fully confident in their political leadership in Ukraine,” said Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg
He said that a global food crunch “is caused by Russia’s war” so the easiest way to end that is to “end the war.”
NATO Secretary-General said that “the global repercussions of this war on energy prices and the crisis” are caused by “Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.”
