Italy and Spain not ready to support allocating €40 billion in military aid to Ukraine
Pravda Ukraine
Italy and Spain made it clear on 17 March that they were not ready to support the proposal by Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, to allocate up to €40 billion in military aid to Ukraine this year.
Source: European Pravda with reference to Reuters
Details: Kallas’s proposal could double the military support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian invasion, as the EU and its members have allocated about €20 billion in 2024.
After a meeting of the 27 EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday 17 March, Kallas said her proposal had broad political support and details were being discussed.
According to diplomats, the proposal has strong support from Northern and Eastern European countries.
But some southern European capitals have been more reserved, reflecting the divide between those geographically closer to Russia, which have provided more aid to Ukraine, and those further away, which have provided less.
Estonia, Denmark and Lithuania are leading the way in Europe, allocating more than 2% of their GDP to Kyiv between January 2022 and December 2024, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy think tank.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, ministers from Italy and Spain, the EU’s third and fourth largest economies, said it was too early to take a final position on the proposal. France has also raised questions about the plan, diplomats said.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the proposal would need to be discussed in depth in light of future developments.
“We are waiting for the Trump-Putin telephone call to see if there will be any steps forward in order to reach a ceasefire. There is a lot of expenditure to be tackled,” he said, adding that Italy also needs to find money to increase its own defence spending.
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said: “We’ll see how the debate goes, but at this point there’s no decision on it.”
Albares said that Spain had already pledged €1 billion in military aid to Ukraine this year.
Three EU diplomats said that during ministerial discussions on Ukraine, Slovakia made it clear that it would not obstruct the plan, but would also refuse to contribute.
Both Hungary and Slovakia do not provide military aid to Ukraine, but EU officials said they would not be able to block the proposal because the contributions would be voluntary.
Background: Kaja Kallas’s proposal of a large package of military aid to Ukraine will be discussed at an informal meeting of EU defence ministers in Warsaw on 2-3 April.
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