US Secretary of State Antony Blinken promises to take “concrete steps to bring Ukraine closer to NATO” and to “encourage” Kiev’s “integration” into the US-led military alliance.
Blinken spoke Friday at a meeting of NATO foreign and defense ministers in Prague. The meeting is being held in preparation for a larger summit to be held in Washington later in July, and Blinken stated that the latter summit will bring Ukraine closer to NATO.
– As we stand here and as we’ll see in Washington, this allience is bigger than it’s ever been with the additional two members. It’s stronger, it’s more resiliant and more united. At the summit, we’ll be taking concrete steps to bring Ukraine closer to NATO and ensure that there is a bridge to membership. A bridge that is strong and well-lit. NATO will help build Ukraine’s future force, one that can effectively deter aggression and defend against it if necessary, he announced.
– We will advance Ukraine’s integration with NATO. 32 countries are also negotiating individual bilateral security agreements with Ukraine, 13 have already been concluded. I expect many more to be concluded by the time of the summit. We will bring them all together to show how powerful that commitment is, he continued.
Blinken was also pleased to see that more and more Allies are increasing their military spending and meeting the commitment to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense, and he hopes that even more countries will choose to prioritize upgrading their military capabilities in the coming year.
As the Alliance continues to grow in strength and numbers, we look forward to welcoming our NATO Allies to Washington, DC for the Summit in July. pic.twitter.com/Iuv6qkDD1P
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) May 31, 2024
Lamenting Chinese Exports
– We are also working within the Alliance to strengthen the Alliance’s collective deterrence and defense. We are increasing production; we are strengthening our defense industrial base. We will have new regional plans that set out how and what Allies must and will do to protect every inch of NATO territory, and we are deepening cooperation between NATO and key partners – the EU and partners in the Indo-Pacific.
Blinken also complained about what he described as “China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base” and the fact that China has chosen not to jump on the West’s sanctions but continues to trade with Russia, supplying machinery and tools.
– what we’ve seen from China is not the provision of weapons to Russia, but the provision of critical inputs that have allowed Russia to accelerate its own production of tanks, of missiles, of shells. Seventy percent of the machine tools that Russia is currently importing are coming from China. Ninety percent of the microelectronics that China (sic) is importing are coming from China.
– China cannot expect on the one hand to improve relations with countries of Europe while on the other hand fueling the biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War, he argued.
