He said this in Washington, where he arrived today on a visit to defend military support for the Russian-attacked former Soviet republic.
After supplying tens of billions of dollars worth of arms to Ukraine, the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden ran out of funds. Biden has asked Congress to approve the allocation of another $61 billion, but negotiations with Republicans are deadlocked, summarizes AFP.
“What matters is that the support for Ukraine continues, because we have to realize that Beijing is watching carefully” this process, the NATO Secretary General told the American TV channel “Fox News”. He also warned that if President Vladimir Putin’s Russia prevails in Ukraine, it “will make not only Europe more vulnerable, but all of us, including the United States.”
Western aid to Kyiv plays a dissuasive role globally, Stoltenberg stressed. He noted that the agreement currently being negotiated in the US Congress is “actually a good one”, arguing that “with only a small share of the US military budget” a “significant part of the Russian military has been destroyed”.
“We must therefore continue” aid to Ukraine, the NATO Secretary General concluded.
Stoltenberg is scheduled to meet with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan in Washington tomorrow. On Tuesday, he will speak with the leaders of the two American parties in Congress, who are now negotiating on granting new aid to Ukraine.
Republicans are tying their agreement to anti-immigration measures at a time when the number of migrants entering the United States from Mexico has reached a record high. The previous president of the USA – Republican Donald Trump, who has every chance to be re-elected to the post in November, calls on his colleagues in Congress to reject the “bad agreement”, notes AFP.
