Jill Biden in Romania among the US troops: “Thank you, I know it’s hard for your families”. In Bucharest: “Extraordinary effort, but it’s just the beginning”

First visit by the American first lady, Jill Biden, to the US troops deployed in Romania to strengthen NATO’s east flank. The first lady landed from Washington in time to help serve dinner at Romania’s Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase near the Black Sea, about 100 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. The base temporarily hosts 1,600 soldiers among the several thousand soldiers deployed by the US president in Eastern Europe after the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

Jill Biden served pasta, cheese, baked potatoes and brought a load of ketchup to the soldiers. The same people who rejoiced, given that – according to the international media – ketchup was in short supply in those parts. “I know it’s hard for your families,” she told a soldier referring to her own experience as a mother: especially her when her son Beau Biden he had gone to Iraq. Before leaving the base and flying to Bucharest, the capital of Romania, the first lady took a photo with the troops representing her home state, Delaware. Jill Biden is on her second trip without her husband Joe. “It is so important to the president and to me that the Ukrainian people know that we are with them,” the first lady told reporters Thursday evening, before leaving Washington.

The central stage of the first lady’s trip is scheduled for Sunday 8 May, Mother’s Day, when she will meet the Ukrainian displaced people who have sought refuge across the Slovakian border. On her journey Mrs. Biden should have been accompanied by her daughter Ashley, she remembers theAssociated Press (Ap), but news of having had close contact with a positive person at Covid prevented her from doing so, according to what she said Michael LaRosa, spokesman for the first lady, to the international news agency. Ashley Biden tested negative.

The first lady will also meet aid workers, educators, government officials and American embassy staff, the White House said. The first lady has long shown interest in the situation of refugees around the world. In 2011, when her husband was vice president, she had been in drought-stricken East Africa; in 2017, however, she had visited the refugees who had arrived in Chios, Greece: a stage in the work of the humanitarian organization Save The Children, in whose council the first lady also served, reports theAp.

“Every first lady has a far-reaching platform to raise awareness and this trip will be an important tool for further support for those forced to flee their homeland,” he said. Krish O’Mara Vignarajahpresident and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and former first lady policy director Michelle Obama.

Jill Biden today praised the Romanian government and humanitarian organizations that are working to rescue refugees fleeing Ukraine. And in a briefing on the humanitarian effort in Bucharest you defined the commitment of the Romanian people as “extraordinary”, adding however that “unfortunately this is only the beginning”. “The Romanian people are fantastic in welcoming all these refugees into their homes and offering them food and clothing, shelter and giving them their heart, and I think the world knows that, so thank you,” the first lady said, they say. the American media. “Unfortunately, however, I think this is only the beginning”, she concluded.