Obama: EU allies' security 'sacrosanct'
Iran Press TV
Tue Jun 3, 2014 11:30AM GMT
US President Barack Obama says Washington's commitment to the security of its allies in Eastern Europe is "sacrosanct."
Obama, who has just arrived in the Polish capital Warsaw, noted Tuesday that Washington's commitment to the security of its allies in Eastern Europe was of particular importance due to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
Minutes after landing in Poland, Obama declared that European security was the 'cornerstone of our own security and it is sacrosanct.'
'It is a commitment that is particularly important at this time,' Obama said, standing in front of American and Polish F-16 fighter jets.
He also said that the United States has increased its military presence in Poland by sending additional ground troops and F-16 warplanes there.
Speaking in Warsaw, on his first stop on a three-country trip to Europe, Obama called on Congress to provide up to $1 billion to support an increased military presence in Eastern Europe.
The funding would be used to increase military exercises and training missions, as well as rotations of air and ground forces, on the continent, according to the White House.
Obama, who is on a four-day tour of Europe, is set to hold talks with Ukraine's president-elect Petro Poroshenko in Poland on Wednesday. He will also attend the G7 summit in Brussels. The final leg of Obama's European trip will take him to France.
Obama's visit to Europe is meant to reassure NATO allies of US support in Ukraine's conflict with Russia.
Obama is to arrive in Paris on Thursday night for a private dinner with his French counterpart Francois Hollande who also has a dinner date on Thursday night with Putin.
Obama administration officials said the three leaders will not be dining together.
The president's trip follows a major foreign policy speech last week at the US Military Academy in which he argued that the American leadership in the world should be exercised mainly by diplomacy, multilateral action and economic pressure, as in Ukraine, rather than through military power.
Tensions between Washington and Russia have been mounting over the crisis in Ukraine, especially following a referendum in the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in which people overwhelmingly voted to join the Russian Federation.
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