I can’t imagine the Romanians are buying this.
Via The Hill:
Vice President Biden on Tuesday sought to reassure Romania that the U.S. would defend its borders amid concerns that Russia’s incursion into Ukraine could spread into other parts of Eastern Europe.
“I’m here to say on behalf of the president what I hope you already know: You can count on us. Period,” Biden said while touring a Romanian air base. “We do what we say, and we mean what we say.”
The borders of Romania, which, like Ukraine, is a former Soviet republic, lie less than 250 miles from Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Moscow earlier this year.
Leaders there have voiced concern for both their own territorial integrity and that of neighboring Moldova, a Romanian-speaking country with a sizable Russian minority that borders the southern regions of Ukraine where separatists have taken hold. Unlike Romania, Moldova is not a member of NATO or subject to its collective defense protections.
Biden said that Russia’s aggression in Ukraine underscored the importance of the NATO alliance, and pledged to uphold the “sacred obligation” of the NATO charter.