Obama Says U.S. ‘Will Never Waver’ on Shielding Allies
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and PETER BAKER
President Obama offered a forceful rejoinder against Russia on
Wednesday, denouncing the “brute force” it has used to intimidate
neighbors and vowing that the United States will stand up for its NATO
allies.
BRUSSELS
— President Obama offered a sustained and forceful rejoinder against
Russia on Wednesday, denouncing the “brute force” he said it has used to
intimidate neighbors like Ukraine and vowing that the United States
“will never waver” in standing up for its NATO allies against aggression
by Moscow.
In
a speech meant as a capstone to his trip to Europe in the midst of an
East-West confrontation with Russia, Mr. Obama addressed Moscow’s
justifications for its intervention in Ukraine point by point,
dismissing them as “absurd” or unmerited. He even defended the Iraq war,
which he had opposed as a senator, as a stark contrast to the way
Russia has seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.
“America
and the world and Europe has an interest in a strong and responsible
Russia, not a weak one,” Mr. Obama told an audience of leading figures
here in the capital of the European Union. “But that does not mean that
Russia can run roughshod over its neighbors. Just because Russia has a
deep history with Ukraine does not mean it should be able to dictate
Ukraine’s future. No amount of propaganda can make right something the
world knows is wrong.”
Video|1:47
Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times
Obama Gives Speech in Brussels
At the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the
president appealed to Europeans to stand behind the ideals of freedom
and human dignity, and deplored Russia’s “brute force” in Ukraine.
Mr.
Obama rejected as false Moscow’s claims that Russian-speaking citizens
were systematically imperiled in Ukraine and that Russia did nothing
more in Crimea than the West had done in Kosovo. He also disclaimed any
self-interested motivations in supporting a new pro-Western government
in Ukraine that toppled Moscow’s ally, President Viktor F. Yanukovych,
last month.
“Make
no mistake: Neither the United States nor Europe has any interest in
controlling Ukraine,” Mr. Obama said. “We have sent no troops there.
What we want is for the Ukrainian people to make their own decisions,
just like other free people around the world.”
Mr.
Obama also took on and dismissed the Russian claim that the United
States is being hypocritical because of its invasion of Iraq. He
reminded the audience that he had opposed the war. “But even in Iraq,
America sought to work within the international system,” he said. “We
didn’t claim or annex Iraq’s territory. We did not grab its resources
for our own gain.”
The
speech came as Mr. Obama moved to deploy additional military forces to
Eastern Europe to guard against Russian aggression. The president met
with Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the secretary general of NATO, to discuss
ways of reassuring Poland and the Baltic states, fellow alliance members
that remain acutely nervous about Russia’s actions in the region. The
United States has already sent additional planes to patrol the Baltic
region and an aviation detachment to Poland.
Mr.
Obama vowed to live up to NATO obligations to defend alliance members.
“We have to make sure that we have put together very real contingency
plans for every one of these members, including those who came in out of
Central and Eastern Europe,” he said at a news conference before his
speech. “And over the last several years we have worked up a number of
these contingency plans.” He said alliance ministers next month would
discuss doing more to ensure a “regular NATO presence among some of
these states that feel vulnerable.”
The
United States has already sent an extra six F-15C Eagles and 60 airmen
to Lithuania and 12 F-16 fighter jets and 200 service members to Poland
in recent weeks. “We’re prepared to do more,” Mr. Obama said.
Aides
said the president would bolster that presence by rotating more ground
and naval troops for exercises and training in Poland and the Baltic
countries; update contingency planning for specific countries and update
NATO’s threat assessment in the region; and increase the capacity of a
NATO quick-response force.
Mr.
Obama challenged other NATO nations to expand their own efforts, saying
that they needed to upgrade their own militaries and help their Eastern
allies. “Going forward, every NATO member state must step up and carry
its share of the burden,” he said.
But
in his speech, at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, perhaps the most prominent
cultural site in Belgium, the president made a point of saying he did
not consider the current showdown with Russia to be a new Cold War,
noting that it was not a global struggle over ideology between blocs of
nations but what he called an isolated, out-of-touch power flexing its
muscles.
“Russia’s
leadership is challenging truths that only a few weeks ago seemed
self-evident, that in the 21st century the borders of Europe cannot be
redrawn with force, that international law matters, that people and
nations can make their own decisions about their future,” he said.
Then
in a nod to the inward focus of many Americans, Mr. Obama added that
“if we applied a coldhearted calculus, we might decide to look the other
way” since Russia’s intimidation of Ukraine did not directly threaten
the United States. “But that kind of casual indifference would ignore
the lessons that are written in the cemeteries of this continent,” he
said. “It would allow the old way of doing things to regain a foothold
in this young century.”
The
president has spent the first half of his European trip this week
immersed in the gritty details of persuading his European allies to
support sanctions against Russian officials, business leaders and
politicians, and to help finance an economic recovery for Ukraine.
But
the speech was an attempt to step back and look at the broader issues,
aides said, in the hopes of helping to outline for Americans back home
and for allies around the world why it is crucial to confront President
Vladimir V. Putin after his takeover of Crimea.
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