Biden rejects Russian dominance in border states

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By Matthew Mosk

BUCHAREST, Romania — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. delivered a major foreign policy speech to university students here Thursday reaffirming the Obama administration's commitment to a durable NATO alliance and rejecting the notion of a Russian sphere of influence in Eastern Europe.

The speech was intended in part to counter concerns here over recent overtures President Obama has made to Russia, an outreach effort that has been viewed with some suspicion in countries that bore the brunt of Soviet rule.

Aides said Mr. Biden picked Romania for the speech in part because the country suffered so severely under its Communist dictatorship and yet has seen democracy flourish during the two decades that followed the fall of the Iron Curtain. In fact, the visit coincided with a recent vote of no confidence of the government in Romania's parliament, forcing Mr. Biden to squeeze in meetings both with the caretaker government and with opposition leaders during his brief visit.

The vice president made reference to the flurry of campaign activity on a visit to Romanian President Traian Basescu. Noting the plans for a Romanian election to be held next month, the vice president said he wished American campaigns could be concluded so quickly.

The four-day swing through Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic comes during what administration officials see as a period of transition for NATO. Mr. Biden described the Eastern European members as countries that once needed to lean on the United States for both military and economic support, but have matured into "full partners."

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"You have begun to realize those dreams that only the bold imagined 20 years ago — a Europe whole and free, anchored in a European-Atlantic alliance institutions of NATO, and the European Union," Mr. Biden said during his 30-minute speech at Romania's Central University.

It is a theme Mr. Biden intends to hammer all week. The vice president's top national security adviser, Antony Blinken, explained that the administration wants to see that the countries of Central Europe turn their focus from a local agenda to a global one.

"The countries are no longer 'post-Communist' or 'in transition,'" Mr. Blinken said. "They are full-fledged members of the NATO alliance and the European Union with serious and substantial responsibilities."

But the vice president's speech also came as part of a hurried response by Mr. Obama's team to a series of events that have placed new strains on the alliance, especially in this region. All three countries on the vice president's itinerary have had a military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq. Leaders across the region have, internally at least, expressed unease with shifting American policy on Russia. And the region has felt the whiplash of a rapidly shifting American policy on missile defense in the region.

The countries have also felt the menacing presence of their powerful neighbor, as Russia clashed with Georgia on an incursion in 2008, and at one point in 2006 threatened to cut off Ukraine's natural-gas supplies during a price dispute.

What leaders in the region wanted to hear most from the vice president was an assurance that the United States would remain committed to protecting them from any Russian attempt to challenge their independence. Mr. Biden complied, repeatedly referring to a central pledge of the NATO pact — that an attack on one member would be viewed as an attack on all members — as a reminder that the United States would not be idle if Russia threatened its neighbors.

"As one who championed the admission of Poland into NATO, I would also point out that we take not only our mutual commitments seriously, but I take [them] very, very seriously," Mr. Biden said during his 18-hour stop in Warsaw. "President Obama and I consider this to be a solemn obligation. President Obama has said — and this is a promise — he said not only for our time, but for all time."

Whether those words are enough remains uncertain, said David Kramer, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. There is a clear message in the strong desire on the part of Poland and the Czech Republic to see elements of the missile defense architecture first proposed by President George W. Bush remain in place, and in Romania's interest in hosting a piece of any new interceptor system on their territory as well.

"It means that they lack complete confidence in NATO as an institution and want U.S. or other troops on their ground as reassurance," said Mr. Kramer, now a senior fellow with the German Marshall Fund. "NATO needs to do more to reassure these states."

Dan Hamilton, director of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University, agreed that while Mr. Biden's visit is a start, the leaders of NATO have more work to do.

"New NATO members should have the confidence that NATO's security guarantees are credible," Mr. Hamilton said. "That requires NATO to do the type of contingency planning that is its job. These efforts lagged in recent years. They should be revived."