On Monday, the head of US diplomacy, Anthony Blinken, considered it important for Congress to approve a new budget envelope for Ukraine, otherwise everything that has been accomplished “will be jeopardized.”
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“Without this, everything the Ukrainians have achieved and we helped them achieve will be in jeopardy,” Blinken said in a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
The latter, who is in Washington to conduct a series of interviews, also called for continued aid to Ukraine, stressing that “the brutal war waged by Russia against Ukraine is approaching its second anniversary.” North Korea and China.”
Mr. Stoltenberg was received in the morning by the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, and also met with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
He is expected to meet in Congress on Tuesday with Republican and Democratic officials negotiating an agreement on a new budget package for Ukraine, saying he is “confident” that the United States and allied countries will continue to support Ukraine.
After delivering tens of billions of dollars in weapons to Kiev since the beginning of the war, the Joe Biden administration exhausted its allocations at the end of 2023. The president asked Congress to approve an additional amount of $61 billion, but negotiations with Republicans faltered.
Under pressure from the right, a new military aid package is being negotiated alongside immigration measures, at a time when the number of migrants crossing the border with Mexico has reached record levels.
He added that the agreement currently being negotiated in Congress “is actually a good agreement, because by using part of the American military budget, we were able to inflict great damage on the Russian army and destroy it.”
Expanded alliance
millimeter. Blinken and Stoltenberg also welcomed Turkey's approval, after many months of negotiations, of Sweden's membership in NATO. There is now only one coalition member left, Hungary, to do so.
The NATO Secretary General said that he spoke last week with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who expressed support for Budapest.
“He informed me that the Hungarian Parliament will meet again at the end of February and I expect, in line with what he said, that the Parliament will approve the ratification shortly after,” he added, saying he was “convinced” that Sweden would be a full member. For NATO.
In exchange for Turkey's ratification, the US government agreed, on Friday, to sell F-16 fighter jets to Turkey for $23 billion.
Meanwhile, Washington agreed to sell 40 F-35 aircraft to Greece for $8 billion. Both Athens and Ankara are members of NATO.
