Five years ago, on May 27, 2015, U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, in a statement at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said the U.S. should pursue cooperation with Russia on areas of mutual interest as long as it is not “asked to back off matters of principles” crucial to the “security and well-being” of Washington and its allies.
In his prepared remarks, Mr. Biden was critical of President Vladimir Putin over Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in March 2014 and its involvement in the conflict in Ukraine’s Donbas region. Mr. Biden called out “Russian aggression” and how it had “literally transformed the landscape of European security.”