BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO defense ministers met Thursday hoping to agree on a new plan to provide Ukraine with long-term security assistance and military training, after Hungary vowed not to veto the plan as long as it is not forced to participate.
The ministers will meet at NATO headquarters in Brussels for two days for final high-level talks ahead of a summit hosted by US President Joe Biden in Washington on July 9 and 11, where the military organization’s leaders are expected to discuss financial will announce aid to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Western allies are seeking to increase their military support as Russian forces launch attacks along the 1,000-kilometre (600-mile) frontline, taking advantage of a prolonged delay in US military aid. European Union money was also held back by political infighting.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who chaired Thursday’s meeting, said Ukraine’s beleaguered armed forces need longer-term predictability about the types of weapons, ammunition and funds they can expect to receive.
“The whole idea is to minimize the risk of gaps and delays, as we saw earlier this year,” Stoltenberg told reporters. The raid, he said, “is one of the reasons why the Russians are now able to seize and actually occupy more land in Ukraine.”
Since Russia’s full-fledged invasion in February 2022, Ukraine’s Western backers have routinely met as part of the Pentagon-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group to drum up weapons and ammunition for Kiev. Another meeting took place at NATO headquarters on Thursday.
Although these meetings resulted in significant battlefield support, they were ad hoc and unpredictable in nature. Stoltenberg has spearheaded an effort to get NATO to pick up some of the slack.
The idea is for the 32-nation military alliance to coordinate the security assistance and training process, partly by tapping into NATO’s command structure and using funds from the common budget.
Stoltenberg said he hopes Biden and his colleagues in Washington will agree to maintain the level of funding for military assistance they have provided to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-fledged invasion in February 2022.
He estimates that this costs around 40 billion euros in equipment annually.
On Wednesday, Hungary announced that it would not veto the plan as long as it is not forced to participate.
“I have asked the Secretary General to make it clear that all military actions outside NATO territory can only be of a voluntary nature, in accordance with NATO rules and our traditions,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said. “Hungary has received the guarantees we need.”
The world’s largest security alliance is not sending weapons or ammunition to Ukraine as an organization, and has no plans to deploy troops on the ground. But many of its members provide aid on a bilateral basis, collectively providing more than 90% of the country’s military support.
The other 31 allies see Russia’s war against Ukraine as an existential security threat to Europe, but most of them, including Biden, have been extremely careful to ensure that NATO does not become drawn into a broader conflict with Russia.
NATO operates on the premise that an attack on a single ally will be met with a response from all.
