Former NATO Secretary General Anders Rasmussen called on Ukraine’s allies, on Tuesday 31 January, to sign the ‘Kyiv Security Compact’ “starting now”.
The pact is a strategic partnership document issued in September 2022 by a group of experts co-chaired by Mr Rasmussen and the head of the Ukrainian President’s office, Andrii Yermak, with the aim of helping to ensure Ukraine’s security once Russia’s war of aggression is over.
“The ‘Security Compact’ aims to strengthen Ukraine’s security now and in the future on the basis that its security depends first and foremost on its ability to defend itself”, Mr Rasmussen told the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Subcommittee on Security and Defence, explaining that “to a certain extent, the pact codifies what is happening on the ground”.
The former NATO Secretary General said that under the pact, guarantor countries would commit to assisting Ukraine in four areas: - building a very strong armed force; - sharing intelligence between Ukraine and its allies; - accelerating the training of military personnel under the flags of the EU and NATO; - building a modern arms industry in Ukraine so that it can produce effective weapons itself.
This support would come from a key group of Ukraine’s allies and a wider group of countries could commit to imposing sanctions automatically in the event of further Russian aggression, he added.
The aim of the pact is not to replace NATO membership, for which Mr Yermak repeatedly argued in his speech to MEPs that welcoming Ukraine into NATO was an investment in future security and would only strengthen the Atlantic alliance.
Pending these international commitments, Mr Rasmussen, like Mr Yermak, called on Ukraine’s allies to do more in delivering military equipment to Ukraine.
“We must act. We talk, but people die. We have a responsibility to bring this war to a rapid end”, said Mr Rasmussen, explaining that the way to do so was to send more heavy weapons to Ukraine.
“Ukraine needs a large arsenal of weapons”, Mr Yermak added. For him, “the European military complex must be relaunched and Ukrainian companies must be given the opportunity to participate”, he said.
See the report: https://aeur.eu/f/55f (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)