Vilnius, (EFE).- The president of the United States, Joe Biden, affirmed today from Lithuania and on the last day of the summit of NATO leaders that the Atlantic Alliance is “stronger, has more energy and is more united than never”.
Biden proclaimed that NATO is more important than ever and framed the war in Ukraine as a global fight between the world’s democracies and autocracies.
“Our commitment to Ukraine will not weaken. We will defend freedom today, tomorrow and as long as it takes!” she almost shouted in an emotional speech at Vilnius University, decorated with Lithuanian and American flags hanging from the façade.
In front of Biden, hundreds of people applauded and cheered, many dressed in the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag (symbols of heaven and cereal) and euphorically waving small flags of the United States and Ukraine.
Hours before the speech, hundreds of people – many young people – lined up to enter the university campus and listen to the US president.
The city Biden was speaking from, Vilnius, brought a very special symbolism to his words.
As the president himself recalled in his speech, the residents of Vilnius showed great courage on January 13, 1991 when Soviet troops deployed there to crush an attempt by the Baltic state to regain independence, in events that ended in death of 14 people.
“Fourteen heroes tragically lost their lives, hundreds were injured, but the whole world saw how decades of oppression had done nothing to snuff out the flame of freedom in this country,” the American leader cried.
Recalling those times of the past, Biden alluded to the invasion that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, launched in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and praised the resistance shown by the Ukrainians, defying the expectations of those who believed that Kiev would fall little. after.
“Putin is wrong. He believes that he could turn Ukraine into a pariah. He cannot understand that this is the land of the Ukrainians, it is their country and their future. Putin can’t understand it after all this time and he is making a bad bet! ”, He stressed with some anger.
Biden argued that Putin cannot understand that “freedom is something that can never be taken away” from a people and called on democracies around the world, from Europe to Asia, to work together to overcome current challenges.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, pausing to give his words solemnity, “we are at a turning point, a turning point in history, in which the decisions we make will determine the direction of our world in the coming decades.” ”.
His speech and his words of support for NATO have a great symbolic content for taking place in Lithuania, which joined the Alliance in 2004, and come just after the summit of allied leaders that ended today after two days of meetings.
At their annual summit, the allies declared that “Ukraine’s future lies in NATO”, but they did not define a specific timetable for their integration, which caused some disappointment between Ukraine and the countries on the eastern flank of the military organization.
However, Biden and other G7 leaders today signed a statement with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, pledging to ensure Ukraine’s long-term security.
That statement, which was condemned by Russia, was a small victory for Ukraine and a further step in supporting the West.