President Biden: In Europe, Brussels, Russia, Sanctions, United

Friday March 25, 2022

President Biden: All the press is here, you must be getting very tired. Am I the sixteenth or the seventeenth?

At any rate, all kidding aside.

Thank you for taking the time.

I… today marked one month since Russia began its carnage in Ukraine, the brutal invasion in Ukraine. And, we held a NATO summit the very next day.

At that time my overwhelming objective in wanting that summit was to have absolute unanimity on three key important issues among our NATO and European allies.

First was to support Ukraine with military and humanitarian assistance.

Second was to impost the most significant, the most significant sanctions, economic sanction regime ever, in order to cripple Putin’s economy and punish him for his actions.

Third was to fortify the eastern flank of our NATO allies who were obviously very, very concerned, and somewhat worried at what would happen.

We accomplished all three of these. Today we’re determined to sustain those efforts, and to build on them.

The United States has committed to provide over two-billion dollars in military equipment to Ukraine since I became President, anti-air systems, anti-armor systems, ammunition, and our weapons are flowing into Ukraine as I speak, and today I’m announcing the United States are prepared to commit more than one-billion dollars in humanitarian assistance to help get relief to the millions of Ukrainians affected by the war in Ukraine.

Many Ukrainian refugees will wish to stay in Europe, closer to their homes, but we will also welcome one-hundred thousand Ukrainians to the United States, with a focus on reuniting families, and we will invest $320 million to bolster democratic resilience and defend human rights in Ukraine and neighboring countries.

We’re also coordinating with the G7 and the European Union on food security as well as energy security. I’ll have more to say about that tomorrow.

We’re also announcing new sanctions of more than 400 individuals and entities in alignment with the European Union, more than 300 members of the Duma, oligarchs, and Russian defense companies that fuel the Russian war machine.

In addition to the 100,000 US forces now stationed in Europe to defend NATO territory, NATO established, as you already know, four new battle groups in Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Slovakia to reinforce the Eastern Front.

Putin was banking on NATO being split. My early conversation with him in December and early January was clear to me he didn’t think we could sustain this cohesion.

NATO has never, never been more united than it is today. Putin is getting the exact opposite what he intended to have as a consequence of going into Ukraine.

We’ve built that same unity with the European Union and with the leading democracies in the G7.

So I want to thank you, and I’ll be now happy to take your questions. Since there is so many people out there, I’ve been given a list. How about Chris from the Associated Press. First question.

Chris: So you’ve warned about the real threat of chemical weapons being used. Have you gathered specific intelligence that suggest that President Putin is deploying these weapons, moving them into position, or considering their use, and would the US or NATO respond with military action if he did use chemical weapons?

President: You know on the first question I can’t answer that, I’m not going to give you intelligence data, number one.

Number two, we would respond, we would respond if he uses it. The nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use.

Josh of Bloomberg.

Josh: Can you talk just about two things, sir: One, since your conversation with President Xi of China, have you seen any indications of action or lack of action from China that has led you to believe whether they will intervene and help Russia either with the sale of arms or the provision of supplies to support this war in Ukraine? And secondly, can you say whether the conversation today turned to the subject of food shortages and what the US will do to address wheat shortages in particular as a result of this war? Thank you.

President: On the first question relating to President Xi Jinping of China. I had a very straightforward conversation with Xi, now I guess it’s six days ago, seven days ago, in that range. I made it clear to him, I made no threats, but I made it clear to him that make sure he understood the consequences of him helping Russia as had been reported and as was expected. I made no threats, but I pointed out the number of American corporations that had left Russia as a consequence of that barbaric behavior, and I indicated that I knew how much, because we had long discussions in the past, about his interest in making sure he had economic relations and economic growth with Europe and the United States, and indicated that he’d be putting himself in significant jeopardy in those aims if in fact he were to move forward.

I am not going to comment on any detail on what we know or don’t know as a consequence of that conversation, but tomorrow, is it tomorrow or next Monday, Ursula is having that conference with China. On April 1st.

We’ve had the discussions because I think that China understands that its economic future is much more closely tied to the West than it is to Russia, and so I am hopeful that he does not get engaged. We also did discuss today that there is a need for us to set up, NATO to set up, and the EU, to set up a system whereby we have an organization looking at who has violated any of these sanctions, and where and when and how they have violated them, and that’s something we’re going to put in train. It’s not done yet. And so with regard to Xi, I have nothing more to report.

With regard to food shortages, yes we did talk about food shortages. And it’s going to be real. The price of these sanctions is not just imposed on Russia. It’s imposed upon an awful lot of other countries as well, including European countries and our country as well. And because both Russia and Ukraine have been the breadbasket of Europe in terms of wheat, for example, just to give you one example, but we had a long discussion in the G7 with both the United States, which has a significant, the third largest producer of wheat in the world, as well as Canada, which is also a major, major producer, and we talked about how we could increase and disseminate more rapidly food shortages, and in addition to that we talked about urging all European countries and everyone else to end trade restrictions on sending, limitations on sending food abroad. And so we’re in the process of working out with our European friends what it would take to alleviate the concerns related to food shortages.

We also talked about a significant major US investment, among others, in terms of providing for the need for humanitarian assistance, including food, as we move forward.

Terina of the Wall Street Journal. Watch out you don’t get hit in the head there now.

Terina: Mr. President, in your view does President Zelensky need to cede any Ukrainian territory in order to gain a ceasefire with Russia, or is that completely off the table? And then also, do you think that Russia needs to be removed form the G20?

President: On the latter point, my answer is “Yes”, that depends on the G20. That was raised today, and I raised the possibility if that can’t be done, if Indonesia and others do not agree, then we should in my view ask to have both Ukraine be able to attend the meetings, as well as, basically Ukraine be able to attend the G20 meeting and observe.

With regard to, what was the first question?

That is a total judgement based on Ukraine. Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine, I don’t believe they’re going to have to do that, but that’s a judgement, there’s negotiations, that are discussions I should say, that have taken place that I have not been a part of, including Ukrainians, and it’s their judgement to make.

Cecilia, ABC. There you are. Oop.

Cecilia: Sir, you’ve made it very clear that in this conflict you do not want to see World War III, but is it possible that in expressing that so early that you were to quick to rule out direct military intervention in this war, could Putin have been emboldened knowing that you were not going to get involved in this conflict.

President: No and no.

Cecilia: And to clarify on chemical weapons, if chemical weapons were used in Ukraine, would that trigger a military response from NATO?

President: It would trigger a response in kind, whether or not you were asking whether NATO would cross, we would make that decision at the time.

Cecilia: My final question: Because you are heading to Poland tomorrow, do you think that getting a firsthand look at the effects of this war on these millions of Ukrainians who have fled their country could change the way that you might respond?

President: I don’t think so because I’ve been in many, many war-zones. I’ve been in refugee camps, I’ve been in war-zones for the last fifteen years, and it’s devastating. What the thing you look at the most is you see these young children, you see children without parents that are within those camps, or are refugees. You see women and husbands, and men and women who are completely lost, you see the blank look on their face, that absolute feeling of “My God, where am I, what is going to happen to me?” And so what it will do, it will reinforce my commitment to have the United States make sure we are a major piece of dealing with the relocation of all those folks as well as humanitarian assistance needed both inside Ukraine and outside Ukraine. For example, this is not something that Poland or Romania or Germany should carry on their own. This is an international responsibility, the United States is a leader, one of the leaders on the international community has an obligation to be engaged, to be engaged and do all we can to ease the suffering and pain of innocent women and children and men for that matter throughout Ukraine, and those who have made it across the border I plan on attempting to see those folks, as well as I hope I’m going to be able to see, guess I’m not supposed to say where I’m going am I. But anyway, I hope I get to see a lot of people.

Marcus of Der Spiegel.

Marcus: Thanks Mr. President. There’s a presidential election coming up in 2024…

President: You’re kidding!

Marcus: …yes, it’s true! And there are widespread concerns in Europe that a figure like your predecessor, maybe even your predecessor himself, might get elected President again. So are there any steps, anything you are trying to do, and NATO is trying to do here, these days, to prevent what you’re trying to do becoming undone two years from now?

President: No, that’s not how I think it is. I’ve been dealing with foreign policy for longer than anybody who has been involved in this process right now. I have no concerns about the impact, I made a commitment when I ran this time. I wasn’t gonna run again, and I mean that sincerely, I had no intention of running for President again, until I saw those folks coming out of the fields in Virginia carrying torches, carrying Nazi banners, literally singing the same vile rhyme that they used in Germany in the early 20’s, or 30’s I should say. And then when the gentlemen you mentioned was asked what he thought, and a young woman was killed, a protestor, and was asked what he thought, “they’re very good people on both sides”. And that’s when I decided I wasn’t going to be quiet any longer.

When I ran this time, and I thank the American press, whether they look on me favorably or unfavorably, acknowledges, I made the determination: Nothing is worth, no election is worth my not doing exactly what I think is the right thing. Not a joke. I’m too long in the tooth to fool with this any longer. And so we’re a long way off in elections, a long way off. My focus of any election is on making sure that we retain the house and the United States senate so that I have the room to continue to do the things that I’ve been able to do, in terms of grow the economy and deal, in a rational way, with American foreign policy and lead the world, be the leader of the Free World. But it’s not an illogical question for someone to ask. I say to people at home, imagine if we sat and watched the doors of the Bundestag broken down and police officers killed, and hundreds of people storming in, or imagine if we saw that happen in British Parliament or whatever, how would we feel?

And, one of the things that I take some solace from is I don’t think you’ll find any European leader who thinks that I am not up to the job. I mean that sincerely, it’s not like “Whoaaa”, it’s that, the point is that when the first G7 meeting I attended, like the one I did today, was in Great Britain, and I sat down and I said, “America’s back”. And one of my counterparts, colleagues, a head of state said, “For how long?” And so I don’t criticize anybody for asking that question.

But the next election, I’d be very fortunate if I had that same man running against me. Thank you very much.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, yeah, one final question, right. Hey look, wait, hold on a second please. I was supposed to be an hour ago at the European Union meeting, and to speak. Now I’m thanking you, say’s I’m going to have them called on before.

You. Who are you?

Christina from CBS: Sir, deterrence didn’t work. What makes you think Vladimir Putin will alter course based on the action you take today?

President: Let’s get something straight. You remember, if you covered me from the very beginning, I did not say that in fact the sanctions would deter him. Sanctions never deter. You keep talking about that. Sanctions never deter. The maintenance of sanctions, the maintenance of sanctions, being pain, and the demonstration why I asked for this NATO meeting today is to be sure that after a month we will sustain what we are doing, not just next month, the following month, but for the remainder of this entire year. That’s what will stop him.

That’s not what I said. You’re playing a game with me. I know. The answer is no. I think what happens is we have to demonstrate, the purpose, the single most important thing is for us to stay unified, and the world continue to focus on what a brute this guy is, and all the innocent people’s lives are being lost and ruined, and what’s going on. That’s the important thing, but look, if you’re Putin and you think that Europe is going to crack in a month, or six weeks, or two months, why not, they can take anything for another month. But we have to demonstrate it. The reason I asked for the meeting: We have to stay fully, totally, thoroughly united. Thank you.