A bilateral agreement between France and Ukraine, established on February 16, must be voted on in Parliament. Billions of euros are on the table. How much exactly?
On February 16, a few days before the two-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky was received at the Elysée by President Emmanuel Macron. An opportunity for the two heads of state to discuss the aid agreement that France grants to Ukraine in the conflict between it and Russia. This security agreement covers both military and financial support. The Ukrainian president also obtained similar agreements with Germany some time ago and also with the United Kingdom last January.
Bilateral agreements which are part of the logic adopted at the Atlantic Alliance summit in Vilnius, in July 2023, where member countries decided to negotiate bilateral agreements with Ukraine rather than setting an entry date for Ukraine to NATO.
This bilateral agreement between France and Ukraine, which commits the State for “a period of ten years”, provides for an increase in financial aid. The objective being to provide “comprehensive assistance to Ukraine” for “the restoration of its territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders”, as indicated in the text of the agreement published by the Elysée. Thus, France has committed to providing “up to 3 billion euros” in “additional” military aid to the country at war in 2024. A budget that has been constantly increasing since the start of the conflict when France gathered an envelope of 1.7 billion euros in 2022 then 2.1 billion in 2023. According to the German Institute Kielwhich lists since the start of the conflict the financial aid provided by each State, France’s total aid until December 31, 2023 amounts to 2.6 billion euros in bilateral military aid, which represents 0.1% of its 2021 GDP. Military aid, in terms of equipment, provided by France until January 15, 2024 represents 0.64 billion euros or 0.024% of its GDP.
The second major chapter of this bilateral agreement concerns the sending of military equipment to Ukraine. A point on which France has not committed as clearly as on the financial level. When developing the text, France did not plan new deliveries and remained vague on the subject. According to Le Figaro, the French president wants to rethink the supply of arms to Ukraine with the establishment of direct production of arms for the country. In this logic, the French company Nexter which builds Caesar self-propelled guns has increased its production capacity to 78 pieces per year and ensures that all of them can be sent to Ukraine. So far, France has sent 30 of these cannons. On condition however that the country places the order which for the moment amounts to 18 guns. On the other hand, the delivery of Mirage type aircraft and in particular the bomber version has not been renewed for the moment. The agreement also envisages “localization of production in Ukraine” and “joint production of priority weapons and ammunition.”