BILLION PLAN: Jens Stoltenberg, on his way to meet the press at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday morning. Photo: OLIVIER HOSLET / EPA / NTB
NATO wants to ensure that Ukraine receives financial support over several years. Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced this at a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday.
reporting from Brussels on Wednesday 3 April at 1:45 p.m
– Ukraine has critical needs. Any delay will have consequences on the battlefield, Stoltenberg said.
– We see how demanding the situation is for Ukraine right now, he added.
The NATO summits are now internally discussing a proposal from Stoltenberg to set aside up to 100 billion euros for Ukraine in a fund.
The fund will secure contributions to Ukraine’s war against Russia and support future NATO membership for a period of five years. It will also ensure long-term support against “shifting political winds”, it is said in Brussels.
In plain text, this means that the fund intends to ensure that the support reaches Ukraine, even if Donald Trump wins the US election.
The fund is also a response to months of deadlock in the US Congress, where the Republican majority is blocking new contributions to Ukraine.
Predictably
– I cannot go into details about the proposal. But we are discussing ways to make our support to Ukraine more predictable and robust. Ukraine must become less dependent on short-term contributions, said the NATO chief.
– The signal to Moscow must be that they cannot wait for us on the battlefield, but sit down at the negotiating table and find a lasting solution so that Ukraine survives as an independent state, he added.
Receives Norwegian support
The Norwegian government has already given its approval to the idea of such a Ukraine fund.
– These are wise and good proposals that we support, says State Secretary Eivind Vad Petersson (Ap) in the Foreign Ministry, who is participating in this week’s meeting of foreign ministers in NATO.
– Will it be easier to redeem money from the Republicans in the USA via NATO than via the Biden administration?
– We are still waiting for new decisions in Congress, and that will be very good. But this is also about burden sharing in the way that European countries must take more responsibility, he says.
Petersson says that the proposal will now be the subject of internal negotiations between the NATO countries until the summit in July.
More Ukraine support
VG has previously reported on two other specific proposals that are up for discussion between the capitals on both sides of the Atlantic, and which will receive their final form at the NATO summit in Washington in July:
- It is relevant that Nato takes over the responsibility for coordinating the military support in the contact group for Ukraine, a task which until now has been led by the USA with around 50 countries in and outside Nato as contributors.
- Several major NATO countries are now entering into agreements with detailed security assurances directly with Ukraine. It is clarified that these are not guarantees that NATO will come to Ukraine’s aid, but assurances of future support.
– There will be new steps on the road to Washington. I have faith that it will be successful both for NATO and for Ukraine, says the Norwegian State Secretary.
Anniversary
On Thursday, NATO’s foreign ministers will mark that today marks 75 years since the NATO pact was signed in Washington on 4 April 1949 by 12 countries, among them Norway.
According to internal cost distribution in NATO, Norway will cover 1.76 per cent of the alliance’s budget. If the Ukraine fund is to be filled with 100 billion euros, this means that Norway must contribute approximately NOK 20 billion.
2024-04-03 09:07:45
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