Multi-day trip
US First Lady Jill Biden visits countries neighboring Ukraine
After the flight, Jill Biden strengthens himself in the canteen. Photo: Susan Walsh/AP Pool/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Visiting Romania and Slovakia is considered a private trip. Jill Biden wants to find out more about the fate of the refugees.
US First Lady Jill Biden landed in Romania at the start of a multi-day trip to countries neighboring Ukraine, which was hit by the Russian war of aggression.
Her tour, which is considered private, takes her to Romania and Slovakia. It is about “reaffirming the strong bilateral relations (of the USA) with the two NATO allies”, finding out about Ukrainian refugees, supporting the Ukrainian people and thanking the refugee helpers, according to the White House.
The First Lady landed at the Romanian air base Mihail Kogalniceanu (MK) near the Black Sea city of Constanta, as reported by Romanian state television. There she will meet the approximately 2,000 US soldiers currently stationed in MK. Half of these US troops were only sent to Romania as reinforcements in March of this year.
On Saturday, Jill Biden wants to speak to refugee workers in Romania’s capital Bucharest and visit Ukrainian children who attend a Bucharest school. So far, more than 1,600 refugee Ukrainian children have been enrolled in school in Romania. Since the beginning of the war, more than 800,000 people have fled Ukraine to Romania. Most of them have traveled further to Western Europe.
The guest from Washington will be accompanied in Bucharest by Carmen Iohannis, the wife of Romanian President Klaus Iohannis. The first ladies have one thing in common: both are English teachers and continue to practice their profession, regardless of the political positions of their husbands.
Jill Biden is traveling to Slovakia on Sunday and wants to spend Mother’s Day there with refugee Ukrainian women and their children. A meeting with Slovak President Zuzana Caputova is scheduled for Monday.