Doorstep statement by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the meeting of G7 Foreign Ministers in Capri, Italy, 18 April 2024.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg underlined the importance of strengthening support to Ukraine.
“We now have encouraging signs from the US Congress that they will vote on a package for Ukraine in the coming days,” said Mr Stoltenberg, welcoming the commitment and determination of NATO Allies in standing up for Ukraine. In recent weeks, Allies have stepped up support, including through the Czech-led ammunition initiative; increased military support from the Netherlands; a new aid package from Denmark, and Germany’s decision to send an additional Patriot system to Ukraine.
“Ninety-nine percent of the military support for Ukraine comes from NATO Allies, and it is of vital importance that NATO Allies sustain and step up their support,” said the Secretary General.
Mr Stoltenberg said that NATO plans to work towards a greater role in coordinating security assistance and training for Ukraine, and stressed the importance of providing sustained and predictable financial support.
On Friday, the Secretary General will chair a virtual meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council at the level of defence ministers.
🗣 | NATO Secretary General:
It’s a pleasure to be here in Capri and to meet with the G7 Foreign Ministers and also to meet them together with Foreign Minister Kuleba. We will address the situation in Ukraine. Of course, the situation on the battlefield is now difficult. The Russians are pushing along the whole frontline and they are launching waves of airstrikes against Ukrainian cities, infrastructure and against Ukrainian forces.
At the same time, I see some important encouraging signs when it comes to NATO Allies stepping up support for Ukraine. Just this week, we had the new announcements from Denmark, from the Netherlands announcing 4 billion more euros for defence for Ukraine. Then we have, of course, Germany announcing a full Patriot battery to strengthen Ukraine's air defences. This is a very advanced air defence system. And then we now have encouraging signs from the US Congress that they will vote on a package of 61 billion US dollars for Ukraine in the coming days. And if we put this together with all the other announcements that we have seen over the last weeks, I'm encouraged by the commitment, of the determination by NATO Allies to stand up for Ukraine. Ninety-nine percent of the military support for Ukraine comes from NATO Allies and it is of vital importance that NATO Allies sustain and step up their support.
We will focus today on air defence, this urgent critical need for more air defence. We're working actively on that in NATO now, ever since Foreign Minister Kuleba attended our Foreign Ministerial meeting just two weeks ago in Brussels. So we have stepped up. We have compiled data about the different air defence systems we have in NATO, focused on the Patriot systems. And we are working with Allies to ensure that they redeploy some of their systems to Ukraine - Germany had already made a decision - and also came to how to mobilise funding for financing deployments of air defence systems to Ukraine.
Then we see that there is need for more ammunition, for more deep strike capabilities, for more maintenance, repair capabilities. So there is a need now to ensure that we have a more robust and institutionalised framework around the support for Ukraine. And we're discussing how we can establish that within the NATO framework in the near future, combined with a substantial multiyear financial pledge because we need predictable, we need robust, we need long term support to Ukraine to ensure that they fill the gaps and provide more support to Ukraine.
Lastly, I will say that I look forward to the meeting today with the G7 foreign ministers and also Foreign Minister Kuleba. But tomorrow we will have a NATO-Ukraine Council meeting as convened from the NATO Headquarters in Brussels with President Zelenskyy. I spoke with him yesterday. He asked for a meeting on the NATO-Ukraine Council and we’ll be convening tomorrow afternoon.
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17 апр 2024
