Don’t “juggle numbers”
Baerbock skeptical about Stoltenberg’s 100 billion plan
April 3, 2024, 3:34 p.m
How should further aid from Western states to Ukraine be guaranteed? The foreign ministers of the NATO countries want to clarify this question. Foreign Minister Baerbock is critical of NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg’s move to set up a 100 billion euro fund. She is completely with him on another question.
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock reacted cautiously to NATO’s proposal for a Ukraine aid fund worth 100 billion euros. There should be no duplication of commitments from NATO and the EU, she said on the sidelines of the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels. “That’s why I don’t think it makes sense to discuss individual variables here again” and to “juggle in the air” with such numbers, she said.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is pushing for billions in aid over five years in order to provide Ukraine with “robust long-term support,” as he said in Brussels. Baerbock pointed out that Germany had already provided 32 billion euros in civil and military support for Ukraine. “It is also completely clear that we have to make further payments,” she said – also for our own protection. However, the magnitude is still up for discussion.
Baerbock emphasized that it was clear that reliable financial aid must continue to be provided for Ukraine. The protection of freedom and democracy should not only apply until the next election date. It’s about the future of our children and that’s why it’s long-term planning that can’t be poured into one-year budgets or a debt brake. “Security requires reliability, and that is why we are discussing in peace, but above all behind closed doors, how we can secure this financial security for our democracy and our freedom in the light of our Basic Law.”
Creating reliable and long-term structures for planning weapons deliveries and training activities is “right and important,” said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. Appropriate preparations are already underway.
NATO should coordinate aid to Ukraine in the future
According to Belgian information, the 32 NATO countries should contribute to the 100 billion euro fund according to their economic performance. Germany would therefore receive the second largest contributions after the USA. “It is dangerous to make promises that we cannot keep,” warned Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib.
Baerbock, however, signaled his approval of Stoltenberg’s proposal to transfer the coordination of Ukraine aid from the USA to NATO. It is “right and important” to pour this into “really structured, reliable, long-term structures,” she said. The USA is currently taking the lead in coordinating arms deliveries to Ukraine. They regularly organize meetings at their air force base in Ramstein in Rhineland-Palatinate or, for example, in Brussels. However, there is concern in NATO that the USA could significantly reduce or even stop its commitment to Ukraine if Republican Donald Trump wins the presidential election in November.