Western allies gathered in Europe to rally behind Kyiv and punish Moscow with fresh sanctions. US President Joe Biden and world leaders opened a trio of emergency summits on Thursday with a sober warning from NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg that the alliance must boost its defences to counter the Russian invasion of Ukraine and ‘respond to a new security reality in Europe’. The meetings coincide a month after the Russian invasion began on 24 February.
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Stoltenberg commented as he called to order a NATO summit focused on increasing pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin over the assault on Ukraine while tending to the economic and security fallout spreading across Europe and the world.
‘We gather at a critical time for our security,’ Stoltenberg said, addressing the leaders seated at a large round table. ‘We are united in condemning the Kremlin’s unprovoked aggression and in our support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.’
He said the alliance is ‘determined to continue to impose costs on Russia to bring about the end of this brutal war’.
Over the course of Thursday, the European diplomatic capital is hosting the emergency NATO summit, a gathering of the G7 industrialised nations, as well as a European Union summit. Biden will attend all three meetings and hold a news conference afterward.
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Arriving at the extraordinary NATO Summit on Thursday (24 March 2022), Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the NATO leaders will address the most serious security crisis in a generation as they meet today at NATO Headquarters.
He explained today’s meeting will focus on continued Allied support to Ukraine and announced that President Zelenskyy will address NATO leaders. Underlining that NATO’s core task is to protect and defend all Allies, the Secretary General said: “the NATO leaders will today address the need for a reset of our deterrence and defence in the longer term.”
Mr. Stoltenberg went on to say that “the first step is the establishment of four new battlegroups in the eastern part of the Alliance in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia”. He also underlined the new sense of urgency for the need of investing more in defence.
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