U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden’s final days in office will be spent in Ukraine and Switzerland. The White House issued a statement on Jan. 12 saying that Biden will travel from Jan. 15-18, before leaving office on Jan. 20 after the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump and his vice president, Mike Pence.
According to the statement, Biden will participate in bilateral meetings in Ukraine with President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman. Biden’s trip “will underscore U.S. support — and highlight his personal involvement in providing support — for Ukrainian independence, democratic development, prosperity. and security. The trip will also celebrate 25 years of diplomatic relations, and look forward to a steadfast partnership over the next 25 years.”
In Switzerland, Biden will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, deliver remarks on the Cancer Moonshot and deliver an address on foreign policy besides participating in several bilateral meetings.
Biden has been U.S. President Barack Obama’s point person on Ukraine policy. America and its European Union allies have applied economic sanctions against Russia for its illegal annexation of Crimea and its three-year war against the eastern Donbas, in which 10,000 people have been killed.
Biden has also urged Poroshenko and other Ukrainian leaders to more vigorously combat corruption.
This will be his fifth visit to Ukraine since President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia on Feb. 22, 2014, at the height of the EuroMaidan Revolution, in which more than 100 people were killed by police snipers.
