NATO calls on allies to invest 100 billion euros in new Ukraine fund

EPA

NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg gives a press conference at the start of the NATO summit

NOS News•today, 1:31 PM

NATO calls on the 32 allies to set up a fund of 100 billion euros to support Ukraine. Sources confirm this to the NOS. This fund could be used to pay for weapons for Ukraine, under NATO coordination.

It remains to be seen whether the fund will actually be created. There is disagreement among NATO countries about the proposal.

The call for setting up a fund of that size is unique in the history of the military alliance, say involved diplomats in Brussels. Stoltenberg wanted the plan for a fund of 100 billion euros not yet confirmed at the start of the NATO summit today. He did say that NATO countries will discuss an agreement to increase support to Ukraine.

Ukraine needs more money, Stoltenberg said. With more support for Ukraine, NATO countries would send a signal to Russia that the country cannot win the war against Ukraine.

NATO Correspondent Kysia Hekster:

“It is a very striking proposal. Until now, NATO has wanted to avoid creating the impression that the alliance is directly involved in the war in Ukraine. After all, that would confirm the Kremlin’s propaganda that NATO is at war. is with Russia.

But Secretary General Stoltenberg is now taking a different tack. He says: NATO must signal to Moscow that it cannot win the war in Ukraine. A stronger NATO would help end the war more quickly, Stoltenberg said.

It shows how much NATO’s thinking on the war in Ukraine has shifted. Previously, sending tanks and F-16s was taboo, but that taboo has now also disappeared. This fund goes one step further.

Diplomats assume that this proposal will certainly not reach the finish line unscathed. There are major objections from member states such as Hungary, which do not want to supply weapons to Ukraine in any way. So it is a controversial plan, which does receive support from the Netherlands, I hear here at NATO headquarters.

The discussion has now begun. Stoltenberg hopes that there will be an agreement among the 32 members at the NATO summit in Washington in July.”

The article is in Dutch

Tags: NATO calls allies invest billion euros Ukraine fund

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