US will increase support for Ukraine and strengthen NATO - Blinken
Joe Biden's administration will continue to strengthen NATO and increase assistance to Ukraine.
This was stated by U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken following a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Censor.NET reports citing Ukrinform.
"We have a very intense and important agenda for the coming months. President Biden is committed to using every day to continue what we've been doing for the past four years - strengthening the Alliance, which is critical to the security of the United States and Europe. We have to do everything we can for Ukraine to make sure it can defend itself against Russian aggression," he said.
According to Blinken, today he and Rutte had a "very productive discussion" on support for Ukraine.
"We are seeing more and more security inseparability between the Atlantic theater, the Indo-Pacific theater, the Middle East. It is critical that we find ways to work as closely together as possible. What NATO has done in the past years is to strengthen ties with partners in the Indo-Pacific, and we will continue to do so in the weeks and months ahead. We also need to keep in mind that the Alliance still has a lot to do in terms of strengthening its defense industrial base to ensure that all of its spending is focused on the right capabilities," the Secretary of State said.
Blinken noted that 23 NATO allies are now spending more than 2% of GDP on defense, which is an achievement. Now we need to ensure that these expenditures are used as efficiently as possible.
The U.S. Secretary of State hopes to have a fruitful discussion with our allies today at the North Atlantic Council, and intends to continue these discussions and return to these topics in a few weeks during the meeting of the Alliance's Foreign Ministers.
