Biden returns to U.S. after reaffirming NATO support in Poland

President Biden is back in the U.S. this morning, arriving home overnight after his whirlwind visit to Ukraine and Poland. During his last day overseas, the president showed up support for NATO allies. He also condemned Russia for suspending its involvement in a key arms control agreement, saying that Putin made a big mistake. NBC News White House correspondent Ali Rafa joins us now with more. Ali, good morning.

So in the closing chapter of this trip, we saw President Biden really affirm America's commitment to Ukraine and NATO, speaking with members of the so-called Bucharest Nine yesterday. I mean, why is that so critical right now? Yeah, Joe. Well, this group, the Bucharest Nine, is an alliance of countries that includes Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Bulgaria, and they created this alliance of countries after the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014. They're important because they really create the eastern flank of NATO. So President Biden, in his speech yesterday, reaffirmed his support for NATO. He underscored how important it is for this group of countries to continue working together, as well as with the United States, as Ukraine faces this war with Russia. And they say that he said it's important for them to work together for as long as possible.

Take a listen to a bit of his speech yesterday. Because what literally is at stake is not just Ukraine, it's freedom, the idea that over 100,000 forces would invade another country after a war, since World War II, and nothing like that has happened. Things have changed radically. We have to make sure we change them back. We heard President Biden talking about defending democracy. These countries literally on the front lines of that war, so President Biden also committed to defending every inch of NATO territory in that speech yesterday, Joe. Ali, of course, Russia has some potential allies, China and Iran.

How are those countries reacting to President Biden's speech in his visit? So China and Iran see the president's visit to Poland and Ukraine as a threat to their countries as well. So in turn, we saw them reaffirm their support for Russia. We already know that Iran has been providing military assistance like drones to Russia since this war began. We know that China has been providing financial aid, as well as nonlethal military aid, since it began. And now U.S. officials believe that China may be sending lethal aid recently in the last few months.

So it's been interesting to see how U.S. rhetoric, U.S. pressure against China has ramped up as these suspicions have grown. The U.S.

is really paying attention to this meeting that Putin had with the Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi yesterday. We saw some of that on camera after they had hours of closed-door discussions. One thing we know that they discussed was a meeting between Chinese President Xi and Putin in the near future. So this is something that's definitely on the radar of U.S. officials in the wake of this, Joe. Another notable headline this week was Russia announcing that it was suspending its involvement in the new START, which is the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the U.

S. Is the Biden administration concerned this could lead to another nuclear arms race? Yeah, this was a very important backdrop to the president's trip. We saw the White House condemn this decision, calling it as unwarranted as it is irresponsible. A top Putin official said yesterday in a statement, quote, if the U.S. wants to defeat Russia, we have the right to defend ourselves with any weapon, including of the nuclear kind. The breaking of a treaty like this, of course, has huge implications, especially when you consider what we know will be a new Russian offensive against Ukraine in the spring.

One thing that's going to be important to watch in the wake of this decision by Russia is whether that decision by President Biden to not send those F-16 fighter jets could possibly change. Remember, he decided to send more Abrams tanks, but said no when asked whether he would send more of those fighter jets. There's also increased pressure on him to change that decision. We saw a group of bipartisan group of lawmakers yesterday send a letter to the White House asking for that decision to be changed, asking for those fighter jets or an equivalent to them to be sent to Ukraine to help with this. So that's something that's going to be interesting to see whether that tone possibly ships by President Biden in the next few weeks. All right. Thanks for watching our YouTube channel.

Morning News NOW, Live