NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg proposes a stronger role for NATO in the arrangements for support to Ukraine.
Maria Stenroos,
Laura Kangas
The foreign ministers of the NATO countries have negotiated in Brussels how to organize support for Ukraine in the future.
Foreign minister Elina Valtonen (co.) meets the Finnish media and tells about the results of the day’s negotiations. According to Valtonen, Finland is ready to discuss with the Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg initiatives on financing Ukraine.
– It is definitely in Finland’s interests that NATO takes a strong role in the coordination of support for Ukraine and why not also in actually implementing financial contributions, Valtonen commented on the matter.
The allied countries are worried about the situation in Ukraine and how the country will do on the front. Arms deliveries have not been as large as Ukraine would have hoped. However, no acute help is promised for this.
However, the foreign ministers have thought about longer-term plans in their meeting.
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has suggested that instead of the US-led Ramstein coalition, support would be arranged by NATO in the future. Stoltenberg has also proposed a large fund of one hundred billion euros, which the allied countries would collect.
The plan is to agree on the matter by the NATO summit in Washington in July.
According to Valtonen, the main message from Finland and Sweden today has been that NATO must continue to strengthen the alliance and that Finland and Sweden will strongly bring their own performance to bear on that.
According to Valtonen, with the meeting, NATO will now be able to prepare the fund and NATO’s greater coordination role. According to Valtonen, we can proceed with the project, because, for example, Hungary, which previously had a tight attitude towards aid to Ukraine, has not objected to it.
In the corridors of the meeting, a solution was also sought for who would lead NATO for the next years. There are two candidates to succeed the current Secretary General, Holland Mark Rutte and Romania Klaus Johannis. In addition to the United States, Rutte is supported by major European countries and, for example, Finland.