NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced, on Tuesday 21 February, that NATO, the EU and Ukraine will strengthen cooperation on military support to Kyiv.
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister explained that the three men had agreed to work intensively on three issues: how to train Ukrainian forces in the most efficient way, how to produce and acquire weapons and ammunition in the most efficient way and how to deliver them to the battlefield in the most efficient way. “The more coordinated we are, the faster the Ukrainian army will expel the Russian army from our territories”, Mr Kuleba told the media after a meeting at NATO.
“We discussed the need to accelerate (arms) production and improve our supply systems to continue to support Ukraine”, Mr Stoltenberg said. He announced that, at Kyiv’s request, it had been agreed that the Alliance should help Ukraine to establish an “efficient, transparent and accountable” procurement system.
The NATO Secretary General also announced an agreement to hold a meeting of NATO, EU and Ukrainian procurement experts to see what more can be done together to ensure that Kyiv has the weapons it needs.
“It is time for the senior diplomats to go into the details to work out the most effective mechanism”, Mr Kuleba said.
For the High Representative, we need to look at the short, medium and long term. “The first thing to do is to use what we have. Secondly, it’s about having more: we need to source from industry. Thirdly, we need to increase the capacity of the industry. Because today, the rate of use of ammunition is greater than the rate of production”, he summarised.
In addition, the Ukrainian Minister asked Mr Stoltenberg to organise the annual industry forum, which brings together all the defence industries, as soon as possible so that they can connect and create synergies and cooperation. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)