Vice President Kamala Harris opened meetings at the Munich Security Conference on Friday by recommitting the U.S. to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and warning Russia it will face “severe consequences” if it invades Ukraine.
She said the U.S. is still pursuing diplomacy and discussions with Russia.
“We remain, of course, open to and desirous of diplomacy as it relates to the dialogue and the discussions we have had with Russia, ” Ms. Harris said at a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. “But we are also committed, if Russia takes aggressive action, to ensuring there will be severe consequences in terms of the economic sanctions we have discussed. And we know the alliance is strong in that regard.”
Mr. Stoltenberg said he met with U.S. troops stationed in Romania on Friday and that NATO is the “cornerstone” for security in both Europe and North America.
“I’m extremely grateful for your personal commitment to our Alliance, to the transatlantic bond, and also the very strong and staunch commitment to NATO from the Biden-Harris administration not only in words but also in deeds,” he said. “We see it on the ground in Europe now.”
It is the most high-stakes overseas mission by Ms. Harris as President Biden’s backup on the foreign policy front.
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The high-profile conference in Germany is unfolding at a tense time for eastern Europe. Russia has more than 150,000 troops along the Ukraine border and may invade at any time. U.S. and European leaders are scrambling to avoid that outcome through diplomacy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says he wants assurances that Ukraine will not join NATO, but Western nations say that is up to Kyiv.
Mr. Stoltenberg called NATO “the cornerstone” for European and transatlantic security, a sentiment echoed by the U.S. vice president.
“Right now we are obviously dealing with being concerned about what’s happening in Ukraine. As a member of NATO, we feel very strongly about and will always be committed to the principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty,” Ms. Harris said. “This is a dynamic moment in time. So the work that we are doing on a daily basis and sometimes on an hourly basis to strengthen relationships, to check-in in terms of our strategic imperatives, is critically important. And that is one of the reasons I am here.”
Ms. Harris later met with Baltic allies who border Russia to underscore what she described as America’s “ironclad” commitment to Article V, a collective defense measure that says an attack against one NATO ally is considered as an attack against all allies.
On Ukraine, she said the emphasis will be on diplomacy, but “the onus is on Russia at this point to demonstrate that it is serious in that regard.”
Latvian President Egils Levits said his goal is to avoid “the hot phase” of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and that a unified West will ensure “the cost-benefit analysis” leads Moscow to a diplomatic solution.
President Gitanas Nauseda of Lithuania and Prime Minister Kaja Kallas of Estonia also attended the meeting.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the title of Prime Minister Kaja Kallas of Estonia.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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