First lady Jill Biden will be leaving her husband, President Joe Biden, later this week … though she will return to his side in a matter of days.
The president’s wife is set to make her second solo journey overseas, this time to Eastern Europe in relation to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, The Daily Wire reported.
While there, Biden will visit with U.S. troops deployed to bolster the defense of NATO allies in the region as well as with Ukrainian refugees forced to flee their homeland, particularly those who are mothers with young children.
Headed to Romania and Slovakia
The White House issued a press release Sunday announcing that first lady Biden would soon travel to Romania and Slovakia between May 5 and 9 and provided an itinerary of what she was expected to do while in those two Eastern European nations in the vicinity of an active war zone.
She will depart the White House on Thursday, May 5, and arrive in Romania on Friday, May 6, where she will first meet with U.S. troops at the airbase where she will land before heading on to the capital city of Bucharest to meet with Romanian officials, U.S. Embassy officials, as well as with aid workers and educators on Saturday, May 7.
Saturday evening, Biden will then travel to Bratislava, Slovakia, to meet with U.S. Embassy staffers before traveling to other parts of that country on Sunday, May 8, which happens to be Mother’s Day, to “meet with refugees, humanitarian aid workers, and local Slovaks who are supporting families who have sought refuge in Slovakia during this crisis.”
Finally, she will hold a meeting with Slovakian government officials on Monday, May 9, prior to flying back to the U.S. and returning to the White House.
Plans to meet with Ukrainian refugee mothers on Mother’s Day
The first lady actually referenced her upcoming trip and what she intended to do while in Eastern Europe during a brief speech she delivered Sunday at The Met in New York City for a fashion exhibit.
“Earlier today, I announced that, at the end of this week, I’ll be headed to Romania and Slovakia to visit our troops and spend Mother’s Day with Ukrainian families who’ve been displaced by Putin’s war,” Biden said near the end of her address.
“As a mother myself, I can only imagine the grief families are feeling,” she added. “I know that we might not share a language, but I hope that I can convey — in ways so much greater than words — that their resilience inspires me, that they are not forgotten, and that all Americans stand with them still.”
Second solo trip overseas, previously visited Japan for Olympic Games
The Daily Wire noted that this excursion to Eastern Europe will be first lady Jill Biden’s second international trip without President Joe Biden being by her side.
The first solo trip for the first lady came in July 2021 when she visited Tokyo, Japan to take part in the Opening Ceremonies for the Summer Olympics that had originally been scheduled to take place in the summer of 2020 but had been delayed for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
