NATO allies to discuss more Ukraine support, defense spending and production – Rutte
NATO defense ministers will discuss increasing defense spending, ramping up the military-industrial complex and supporting Ukraine.
The relevant agenda for the meeting of the alliance's defense chiefs was announced in Brussels on Wednesday by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
"Today there will be an important meeting with defense ministers. We had a very successful summit in The Hague. As you know, we agreed to increase defense spending to 5%, including 3.5% for core defense and 1.5% for all important defense-related issues. It was a summit where we also discussed the industrial production of defense products to increase it and ensure that Ukraine is as strong as possible to stay in the fight. And today we will touch on all of these issues and, of course, what happened recently, drones, how to make sure that we can do even more to protect NATO from these new developments. So it will be an important day," he said.
Rutte also announced that the NATO-Ukraine Council meeting, which will be attended by Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal and EU High Representative Kaja Kallas, will be held over lunch. "And then, later today, we will have a Contact Group on Defense Issues in Ukraine, where we will discuss further strengthening support for Ukraine under the leadership of the two defense ministers of Germany and the United Kingdom, Boris Pistorius and John Healey," the NATO Secretary General said.
Another issue that the ministers will discuss will be the PURL initiative, under which the United States is once again providing Ukraine with the necessary lethal and non-lethal military support, at the expense of allies, and for which EUR 2 billion have already been allocated. "I have every reason to assume today that many other countries will sign up. These are extremely important things, including air defense systems and, in particular, interceptors, important for Ukraine to ensure maximum protection of its civilian population, its vital infrastructure from constant Russian attack," Rutte said.
