War in Ukraine: the United States will "strengthen its military position in Europe"

On the sidelines of the NATO summit in Madrid on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden announced that the United States would "strengthen its military positioning in Europe" so that NATO could "respond to threats coming from all directions and in all areas: land, air and sea”.

Thus, the United States will strengthen its presence of American soldiers and capabilities in Spain, Poland, Romania, the Baltic States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy.

“We are there” and “we are proving that NATO is more necessary than ever”, declared the American president, alongside the organization's secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg.

Read alsoThe war in Ukraine could last “for years”, warns NATO

In detail, he recalled that the United States had already deployed this year “20,000 additional soldiers in Europe to reinforce our lines in response to the aggressive initiatives of Russia”.

Joe Biden then confirmed that Washington would increase the number of its destroyers at the Rota naval base in Spain from 4 to 6.

Earlier in the morning, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Russia posed a "direct threat" to the security of NATO countries.

Russia, from “strategic partner” to “main threat”

"We are going to say clearly", during the summit which is to revise the Alliance's roadmap for the first time since 2010, "that Russia represents a direct threat to our security", he said, while the Atlantic Alliance will strengthen its eastern flank in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In the wake of statements by the head of NATO, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also said in an interview with Spanish radio SER that Russia had gone from "strategic partner of NATO" to "main threat for the allies ".

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Macron at the G7: "Russia cannot and must not win"

Finally, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday that NATO allies would continue to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia "as long and as intensely as necessary".

"Russia, with its brutal war of aggression, has violated the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine," he told reporters on his arrival at the NATO summit in Madrid.