World leaders under the NATO alliance gathered this week for a summit in Madrid, where the ongoing war in Ukraine was on the main agenda. US President Joe Biden announced that there would be reinforcements of the US military across Europe.
At the NATO summit in Madrid Wednesday, Biden said that the US military would be deployed across Europe, from establishing army bases in Poland to providing two fighter jet squadrons to the United Kingdom and bolstering the defense capabilities of Germany and Italy.
The US leader added that there would be a “rotational brigade” of 5,000 troops in Romania while enhancing rotational deployments in the Baltic states.
The day before, Biden announced that the US is boosting its fleet of four naval destroyers in Rota, Spain, to six. The US leader said the decision to enhance backing for US allies in the region is made at a time when Russian dictator Vladimir Putin “shattered peace in Europe and attacked the very tenants of rule-based order.”
Biden stressed that the NATO alliance “is more needed now than it has ever been and it’s important as it ever has been.”
The United States currently has 100,000 servicemembers in Europe, 20,000 more than before Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
Biden’s announcement comes as the US leader predicted that the NATO summit would be “history-making” as the alliance is set to agree on a new strategic framework along with announcing steps that will boost their defense spending and capabilities while clearing the path for neutral countries Sweden and Finland to become members of the alliance.
Previously, Biden stressed the need to go after criminal drug trafficking rings when he condemned the deaths of at least 50 migrants in a semi-truck in San Antonio, Texas, Tuesday.
The death toll included migrants from Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala, according to a federal law enforcement official.
The discovery of the incident came as federal authorities launched an “unprecedented” operation to intercept human smuggling networks and an influx of migrants at the southern border of the country.
The San Antonio police alerted the Department of Homeland Security’s Investigation Unit of “an alleged human smuggling event,” which is also seen as the most deadly incident in recent years for migrants looking to enter the US.