On Monday 30 January, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu called on the West to spend the equivalent of 1% of its GDP in support of Ukraine.
Estonia announced on 20 January that it would increase its military support to Ukraine to just over one per cent of its GDP, or €370 million.
“We have put in place a new military aid package for Ukraine. It is worth 1% of our GDP, and we will deliver it to Ukraine. It is - and will be - our call to all friends to follow the same path, the war is very expensive from military logistical perspective”, he stressed at an EPP conference in Tallinn.
While the cost of post-11 September US interventions, notably in Iraq and Afghanistan, would have reached $8 trillion, the Minister said that aid to Ukraine - even though it was at war - amounted to only tens of billions. “The efforts are far from sufficient”, he lamented.
According to Mr Reinsalu, there is a need to “change the paradigm of military support to Ukraine”, from delivering what it takes for Ukraine not to lose the war to what it takes to win it. “This should be the goal of our paradigmatic investment”, he explained, mentioning that the West, by helping Ukraine, was investing in its own security.
In addition to military aid, the Minister called for additional sanctions against Russia, saying that despite the nine packages already adopted, it had to be admitted that “we have not yet achieved the objective we set ourselves”. He added that no new derogations should be created, regretting those agreed in the 9th package (see EUROPE 13085/1).
Mr Reinsalu also called for a revision of the ceiling price for Russian oil. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)