Borrell talks about prospects of million rounds for Ukraine
Pravda Ukraine
Josep Borrell, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, has said at a meeting with the defence ministers of the member states that they will examine the situation with the production of rounds to support Ukraine and ways to increase supplies.
Source: European Pravda with reference to Borrell’s meeting with the press before the meeting with the defence ministers in Brussels
Details: “This is what we are going to scrutiny closely, where the member states are… and on that track where we are supposed to be,” Borrell answered a question about the promised million rounds for Ukraine.
He explained that this is a matter of signed contracts and available funding from member countries.
Borrel said the EU countries reached the expected indicators according to the first track, which is provision of what the European armies had in their warehouses. He added that over 300,000 rounds have been handed over to Ukraine.
“Keep in mind, the European defence industry is exporting a lot. About 40% of the production is being exported to third countries. So, it is not the lack of production capacity, it is that they send their products to other markets. So, maybe what we have to do is to try to shift this production to the priority one, which is Ukraine,” Borrell said.
Answering the question about political support for such a decision, Borrell said European arms manufacturers act according to the logic of market players’ logic.
“So it’s the matter of providing another market that could be more interesting for them,” Josep Borrell noted.
Background: Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the European Union would not be able to carry out its plan to supply one million rounds of artillery to Ukraine by March 2024 due to the state of defence production and bureaucratic obstacles.
Earlier, Josep Borrell suggested that further US aid to Ukraine is likely to shrink; therefore, EU countries should be politically prepared to maintain their support for Ukraine in the face of this.
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