The measures also come as tensions escalate amid a buildup of Russia’s aggression at the Ukrainian border. Blinken traveled to NATO headquarters this week amid the buildup.
In the U.S., tensions over policing escalated last week police officer Kim Potter fatally shot 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a Black man, during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minn.
Potter has since resigned and is currently facing charges of second-degree murder. Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Cannon also resigned after saying that he believed Potter meant to taze Wright, not shoot him.
Wright’s killing set off nights of protests in the city, as well as across the country. The shooting came during the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who knelt on the neck of George Floyd, another Black man, in Minneapolis last year.