US Representative: Currently we do not agree with Ukraine’s entry into NATO

According to Isna, France has recently tried to advance a plan for more military self-sufficiency of the European Union following the possibility of Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency.

According to the European Commission’s Strategy for Military Industries, which was unveiled earlier this year, 27 EU countries, including 23 NATO members, recently set a goal that by 2030, half of their military procurement budgets would be spent solely on the purchase of EU-produced weapons. and later increase this percentage to 60% by 2035.

Some members of the European Union, such as Sweden and the Netherlands, have opposed this strategy. In the meantime, France says that it sought to support its own armaments industries, while the country’s industries do not reach the level of other major arms manufacturers such as America and South Korea in terms of volume of production and quick delivery of items. Poland has become one of the biggest buyers of weapons from South Korea.

In an interview with Politico, Julian Smith, the outgoing representative of the US in the NATO alliance, said: “It is interesting and attractive that the European Union is preparing itself to take on a greater share of defense and security responsibilities. Does America have any concerns about how these initiatives will be implemented? It certainly has.”

Criticizing this strategy of the Europeans, he said: “When the Europeans say that they should buy Europe’s domestic weapons and military equipment, we ask them if you are not going to allow the countries to get the best capability at the best price according to their needs and determination.” Go to vendors who have the items they need and can deliver in the time frame they need? This will sometimes make you go to countries outside the European Union.

The American envoy to NATO continued: “I respect their long-term and medium-term views, but I am not sure that limiting our purchases to EU countries will help to deliver aid, either to Ukraine or to other countries that lack weapons in the NATO alliance. »

In the continuation of this interview, Smith also said that when he assumed his post in late 2021, some European countries were not willing to accept Washington’s intelligence findings about the threat of Russian attack on Ukraine.

He stated: “When I entered the talks of the European heads of state in November and early December, I realized that not all Western allies agreed with the assessment of the Russian threat. Some of these countries argued that Russia, in line with an old tactic, has adopted a threatening arrangement of its forces behind the borders of Ukraine, and its strategy is not much different from previous years. Those countries believed that Russia would not cross the borders of Ukraine. But I spent a lot of time in the first weeks of my job inviting reporters from Washington, continuing conversations and exchanging as much information as possible.”

He said that on February 24, 2022, following the start of the Russian operation in Ukraine, he received a phone call at three in the morning at his residence, which was the most difficult time of his service in NATO.

Julian Smith continued that the US does not currently agree with the invitation of Ukraine to join NATO, which is one of the main provisions of the so-called victory plan recently presented by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

He stated: “The NATO alliance has not yet reached the point of readiness to propose Ukraine’s membership in NATO or to invite Ukraine to this membership, and our intention is to bring Ukraine closer to NATO.”

On the other hand, Smith downplayed the concerns about the possible consequences of Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency for NATO.

He, who was proposed by Joe Biden for the post of US Deputy Secretary of State, said: “For 75 years, US presidents from every party have supported this coalition and committed to show leadership in the coalition. “I have every confidence that the United States will also continue to play that role moving forward regardless of what happens in the November 5th election.”

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