NATO member states are trying to agree on increasing the funds provided to Ukraine, as no agreement has been reached on the timing of Ukraine’s accession to the alliance. newspaper reports Finance Times with reference to sources.
According to the newspaper’s sources, NATO foreign ministers will meet on April 4 to discuss doubling the commitments of the 2016 Comprehensive Aid Package to Ukraine, worth around 250m euros per year, to 500m euros.
According to the FT, the increase in funding is aimed at alleviating Kiev’s “pervasive reluctance to discuss within the alliance a specific time frame for the country’s entry into NATO”.
The meeting is also planned to discuss measures to expand the work to increase interoperability between the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the forces of the North Atlantic Alliance, improve the standards and practices of the Ukrainian army, accelerate the transition from Soviet technology to modern technology. As well as deepening political ties between NATO, Ukraine and NATO.
One diplomat said Ukraine’s bid for NATO membership in September 2022 was “simply ignored” by the alliance. He added that at the moment Ukraine’s membership is not possible, but that the alliance wants to “take concrete steps beyond or in support of this to show that we believe it in the long run”.
Former NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg declarationThe issue of Ukraine’s membership “will not matter if it does not win the military conflict.”