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US and Europe find unity but must move beyond the West

EXPERT COMMENT

President Biden’s first State of the Union address was delivered to a US Congress which showed moments of seemingly cast-iron unity in support of Ukraine.

As President Joe Biden delivered the State of the Union address, a Russian convoy was approaching the outskirts of Kyiv. Earlier in the day, a TV tower was attacked and missiles had descended on the graves of thousands of Jewish citizens killed by the Nazis. Such brutal attacks not only underscore Putin’s utter contempt for Ukraine’s sovereignty and disregard for civilian immunity, but also his rejection of the European security order and determination Ukraine would not join it.

Biden’s reference to the ‘wall of strength’ Putin encountered when he ‘met the Ukrainian people’ elicited an outburst of approval in the US Congress which harked back to an era of bipartisanship in foreign policy which has since vanished.

Europe has been upset by America’s unpredictability but also by its newfound realism, not least on Afghanistan, and is uncertain about its reliability as a security partner for Europe.

But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is driving a renewed transatlantic unity, most obviously manifest in joint sanctions and the export of lethal aid to Ukraine, but also on the limits of military engagement. As the invasion continues, leadership is essential to sustaining this unity as the future of Ukraine is highly uncertain, and both the European security order and the sovereignty norm enshrined in the UN Charter are being tested.

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Channel website: https://www.chathamhouse.org/

Original article link: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2022/03/us-and-europe-find-unity-must-move-beyond-west

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