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Foreign ministers from NATO’s 32 member states met in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss a proposed €100 billion ($108 billion) fund for long-term military support to Ukraine.
“The secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has proposed creating an envelope of €100 billion over five years,” Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib told reporters ahead of the meeting at NATO headquarters, adding: “We’ll analyse the feasibility of this proposal.”
At the moment, NATO itself is not officially providing any lethal aid to Ukraine’s defensive war against Russia’s invasion of its territory.
Instead, NATO member states have coordinated military aid through the Ukraine Contact Group, an initiative chaired by the United States.
However, a proposal from Stoltenberg would see that role transferred to NATO proper, along with creating a 100 billion-euro-five-year fund for Ukraine.
“We must ensure reliable and predictable security assistance to Ukraine for a long haul so that we rely less on voluntary contributions and more on NATO commitments, less on short-term offers and more on multi-year pledges,” he said.
Diplomats say the proposal is intended to protect the support provided by the Ukraine Contact Group from former United States president Donald Trump, who could be returned to the White House by-elections due to be held in November.
There are doubts about Mr Trump’s willingness to support Ukraine in the long term, particularly after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a Trump ally, said the former president “will not give a penny” to the Ukrainian war effort.
