Broadcast and cable networks carried Joe Biden’s press conference in Brussels, where he is meeting with NATO allies, and reporters keyed in on one possibility: That Russia would use chemical weapons in the Ukraine war.
“We will respond,” Biden told reporters. “The nature of the respond will depend on the nature of the use.”
The president declined to address what kind of intelligence leads the U.S. to think that Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering the use of chemical weapons, and he also did not go into specifics as to what kind of response that the U.S. and other NATO countries would take.
“It would trigger a response in kind,” Biden said. “We would make that decision at the time.”
Biden also elaborated on his phone call last week with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The president said that he indicated to Xi that would “would be putting himself in significant jeopardy” if China backed Putin’s action against Ukraine. Although Biden said that his comments to Xi were not a “threat,” he said that he noted that American corporations have left Russia following the invasion. That seemed to be a suggestion that China could face an economic cost.
“China understands its economic future is much more closely tied to the west than it is with Russia,” Biden said.
Biden will visit Poland and hinted that he would be meeting with Ukrainian refugees who have fled to the border.
Biden took questions from six different reporters, including those from the Associated Press, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, ABC News, Der Spiegel and CBS News.
Biden also announced plans for the U.S. to welcome up to 100,000 refugees from Ukraine.
The Der Spiegel reporter asked Biden whether European leaders were concerned about his political fate and the possibility of Donald Trump returning to the White House. Biden, though, seemed to dismiss that it was a topic.
“I don’t think you will find any European leader who thinks I am not up to the job,” he said.