Five years ago, on May 27, 2015, U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, in a statement at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said the U.S. should pursue cooperation with Russia on areas of mutual interest as long as it is not “asked to back off matters of principles” crucial to the “security and well-being” of Washington and its allies.
In his prepared remarks, Mr. Biden was critical of President Vladimir Putin over Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in March 2014 and its involvement in the conflict in Ukraine’s Donbas region. Mr. Biden called out “Russian aggression” and how it had “literally transformed the landscape of European security.”
Mr. Biden said that it was “overwhelmingly in our interest to continue to cooperate” with the Kremlin on issues like counterterrorism and a deal to restrict Iran’s nuclear capabilities. “[Putin] will push as far as he can, in my view, until he reaches resistance that in fact says there’s a big price to pay,” he said. “And he may then make a mistake and continue.” He added, “But I think if you look at his behavior over his career, he’s a practical guy.”
Citing Ukraine’s right to self-determination, the vice-president underscored, “It’s about the future of NATO, our collective self-defense, and our unity, our strength, our ability to deter aggression together.”
However, Mr. Biden’s remarks offered little new in terms of Washington’s position on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. He did reiterate Washington’s position that the U.S. and its NATO and European allies must remain vigilant in confronting what he called Russia’s “hybrid warfare.” Moscow, he added, was effectively deploying propaganda and sowing discord among European Union member states by backing right-wing and left-wing movements to “create cracks” in European politics.
Ukraine’s commitment to political, economic and anti-corruption reforms requires support from Western countries, and Ukraine’s success could serve as a catalyst for similar change in Russia, the vice-president noted.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama met with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at the White House on May 26 and, from that meeting, President Obama issued a statement calling for Russia’s withdrawal of support and “all its forces from eastern Ukraine.”
The next day, Mr. Stoltenberg, in his address at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said NATO neighbors Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine “…are not buffer zones, they are independent sovereign states. They have the right to choose their own paths and we will help them on that path.”
Furthermore, Russia’s provocative rhetoric on nuclear weapons and the interception of Russian warplanes by NATO member forces were “deeply troubling,” he stated.
Source: “Biden defends cooperation with Russia amid Ukraine standoff,” RFE/RL, The Ukrainian Weekly, June 7, 2015.