"NATO Allies must do two things": Stoltenberg on strategy to help Ukraine in the war with Russia
Kyiv • UNN
NATO member states should provide immediate emergency support to Ukraine with air defense systems, missiles and ammunition, and create a long-term, predictable structure, backed by financial commitments, to ensure continued support for Ukraine against Russia's armed aggression.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has named two things that NATO allies should do to help Ukraine survive and win in the face of Russia's armed aggression. This is reported by UNN with reference to Stoltenberg's statement following the second day of meetings with ministers of NATO allies in Brussels.
Overall, NATO Allies need to do two things. First, we need to mobilize more support in the coming days and weeks. This is an urgent need, and Allies have already stepped up.... But we also have to do the other thing, and that is to ensure that we can put in place a stronger, more robust and more predictable structure for long-term support so that this can continue on a predictable basis.
Details
He noted that this is not an "either/or" situation, both points are important.
So it's not either/or: we need immediate emergency support, and then we need to work on longer-term structures.
Regarding the first point, Ukraine's urgent need today is for air defense systems, missiles and ammunition. And NATO member states are determined to meet these needs. Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Finland have already announced their support with weapons.
As for the second point, the work is ongoing. Stoltenberg said that the Alliance is currently discussing what they called the NAC Directive, and they are waiting for recommendations from the Supreme Allied Commander SACEUR to continue working on this document.
"We agreed yesterday to start planning. SACEUR (Supreme Allied Commander Europe), our supreme allied commander, has now been tasked with presenting a proposal for a framework. Then it will be a certain structure that will allow us to have more transparency and predictability. And then, of course, this structure should be backed by a certain financial commitment. In a sense, these are two elements of the same task: to have a structure and to have funding. So I can't go into further details right now because we have already started planning, we have agreed on what we call the NAC Directive to start this planning. And then, when we get advice from SACEUR, we will be able to make more precise decisions.
The NATO Secretary General noted that the development of this document does not mean that support for Ukraine has been terminated.
We will continue to mobilize support. And, of course, we have bilateral support, we have Ramstein, the U.S.-led Ramstein format, we have the EU, we have a lot of... We have the Multilateral Opportunities Coalition. So, there are many ways that we can provide support while we wait for a more robust, predictable NATO structure to further enhance our support.
