President Joe Biden said that the U.S. and NATO would respond “in kind” if Russia uses weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine. Biden said that the nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Biden also said that he would support an effort to expel Russia from the G-20 group of economies.
The remarks came after a marathon of emergency summit meetings held between the European Union, NATO allies, and G-7 partners.
Biden declined to say whether the U.S. has evidence that China has helped assist Russia in evading sanctions, or has sold Russia American high-tech equipment, which would be in violation of export bans.
On China, Biden said that he believes China understands that its economic future is much more tied to the West than it is to Russia, and so therefore he hopes that Chinese President Xi Jinping will not get engaged.
Biden said that leaders from NATO discussed that there is a need for the EU and NATO to establish a system to review sanction violations, and in what way Russia is skirting sanctions to buy banned products.
Biden spoke about sanctions as well, saying that he had asked for the NATO meeting in order to sustain what is being done in Russia to stop Putin’s war against Ukraine.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg spoke to reporters this week and said that the use of chemical weapons would completely change the nature of the conflict in Ukraine.
He said that the use of chemical weapons would be a blatant violation of international law, and would therefore have far-reaching consequences, adding that the use of the weapons could impact nearby NATO members.
NATO will provide Ukraine soon with equipment to protect against the use of chemical, biological and radiological weapons, as well as nuclear weapons.
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