NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte did his best not to comment on the latest news on the peace process after the US delegation’s mission to Moscow: “It would be counterproductive.” If in the end, despite the efforts, there is no agreement, it is however “essential” that weapons continue to arrive in Ukraine and that the economic sanctions imposed on Russia “bite”. “Only in this way can we change Vladimir Putin’s mind.”
Rutte then said he was very satisfied with the good progress of the Purl initiative – essential American armaments bought by the Europeans for Kiev – since “only a handful” of allies have not yet joined. It’s a shame that others see it differently.
«We must share the burden of support throughout the Alliance, we cannot continue with the fact that the Baltic-Nordic countries, Poland, Germany and a few others are paying», for example, complained the Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys. Among the great allies only France, Italy and Great Britain are missing. The head of the Farnesina, Antonio Tajani, when questioned about this, cut it short: “For us, for now it is still premature.”
“We hope – he added – that no more weapons will be needed in the coming months, because if an agreement is reached and a ceasefire is achieved, the weapons will no longer be needed, they will be used to do something else”. To date, the Purl program has raised $4 billion in funding and five allies – Germany, Poland, Norway, the Netherlands and Canada – have announced an additional $1 billion in contributions (counting towards reaching the 3.5% traditional defense commitment).
Rutte then revealed that, for the first time, non-NATO countries, such as New Zealand and Australia, will also participate. While waiting to understand what course Donald Trump will follow as soon as his emissaries return home, NATO then continues to implement the decisions taken at The Hague to increase defense spending, not only on paper but in the equipment necessary to make the Alliance “stronger and more adaptable, capable of discouraging any aggression and defending every centimeter of the territory”. THE
US Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau in his speech criticized the Europeans for wanting to apply “protectionist policies” that penalize American companies, thus reducing “deterrence”.
Now a workhorse of the United States since the EU announced its interventions in the defense industrial sector. Russia – Rutte recalled – is also demonstrating “increasingly reckless behavior”, with “violations of our airspace, cyber attacks and the deployment of spy ships to map our underwater infrastructure” in addition to “hybrid threats and attempts to destabilize our societies”.
Poland brought to the attention of colleagues what happened to the railway line leading to Ukraine, which was blown up in a section, and Lithuania once again evoked the episodes of weather balloons coming from Belarus, used for smuggling but which, at the same time, create inconvenience and dangers in the skies.
The president of the Military Committee, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, on the sidelines of the ministerial issued a statement to ANSA – after the interview with the Financial Times which caused a certain amount of outcry – in which he reiterated that NATO “is and remains a defensive alliance”. At the same time, given the situation, he highlighted how “important and necessary” it is to maintain “a flexible and assertive approach, without obviously fueling escalatory processes”.