Nato secretary general says ‘supporting Ukraine is not charity’ but ‘an investment in our own security’
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, has thanked Australia for contributing funds to strengthen Kyiv’s defence capabilities.
Arriving at today’s meeting of defence ministers, the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, told reporters that “supporting Ukraine is not charity” and that helping Kyiv “is an investment in our own security.”
And to do both, we need to invest more, and we are on the right track. Because we now have historic numbers when it comes to defence investments. Last year, we saw an 11% real increase in defence spending across Europe and Canada. This year, we expect 18 Allies to meet the target of spending 2% of GDP on defence. And European Allies together spend 280 billion US dollars on defence. And this is 2% of their combined GDP.
But we still have a way to go. Because at our summit in Vilnius last year, all allies promised to spend 2% of GDP on defence, and 2% is a minimum.
We will address how to sustain our support to Ukraine. We see that our support is making a difference on the battlefield every day. Just yesterday, the Ukrainians were able to strike successfully a Russian naval ship, and this demonstrates the skills and the competence of Ukrainian armed forces, also in conducting deep strikes behind the Russian lines.
To ensure that Ukraine gets the weapons, the supplies, the ammunitions they need, we need to ramp up production. And NATO allies have, just over the last months – since we agreed the defence investment plan – agreed and signed contracts for 10 billion euros, for more orders from different parts of the transatlantic defence industry.
Continue reading…Nato secretary general says ‘supporting Ukraine is not charity’ but ‘an investment in our own security’Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, has thanked Australia for contributing funds to strengthen Kyiv’s defence capabilities.Arriving at today’s meeting of defence ministers, the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, told reporters that “supporting Ukraine is not charity” and that helping Kyiv “is an investment in our own security.”And to do both, we need to invest more, and we are on the right track. Because we now have historic numbers when it comes to defence investments. Last year, we saw an 11% real increase in defence spending across Europe and Canada. This year, we expect 18 Allies to meet the target of spending 2% of GDP on defence. And European Allies together spend 280 billion US dollars on defence. And this is 2% of their combined GDP.But we still have a way to go. Because at our summit in Vilnius last year, all allies promised to spend 2% of GDP on defence, and 2% is a minimum.We will address how to sustain our support to Ukraine. We see that our support is making a difference on the battlefield every day. Just yesterday, the Ukrainians were able to strike successfully a Russian naval ship, and this demonstrates the skills and the competence of Ukrainian armed forces, also in conducting deep strikes behind the Russian lines.To ensure that Ukraine gets the weapons, the supplies, the ammunitions they need, we need to ramp up production. And NATO allies have, just over the last months – since we agreed the defence investment plan – agreed and signed contracts for 10 billion euros, for more orders from different parts of the transatlantic defence industry. Continue reading…