NATO seeks to remove US control of arms deliveries to Ukraine amid fears Donald Trump could win in November

American tycoon Donald Trump promises it if he returns to the White House The United States would abandon Ukraine and would stop transferring funds and weapons to him. Since these weapons began arriving in Ukraine, the shipments have been coordinated by American agents from the German Ramstein air base, one of the main American bases in Europe. Trump, who believes this is the best way to end the war is to stop arming Ukrainecould block this framework, the NATO hierarchy believes, which is why on Thursday it presented to the chancellors of the 32 member states a plan for NATO itself from Brussels, and not from the United States, to coordinate arms deliveries.

For this reason, NATO it should open its mechanisms to more countries because more than 50 attended meetings at the German Ramstein base. The change would shape NATO as an organization greater involvement in the conflict, something he had resisted until now. And he still has to convince the United States to give up such coordination because they would give up influence and control over what is sent to Ukraine and when it is sent.

Furthermore, the Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance, Jens Stoltenbergbelieves that the time has come for NATO headquarters in Brussels to do so There is a Ukrainian diplomatic “mission”.. It is the preliminary formula for the diplomatic delegation of a member state and would serve to prepare Ukraine’s accession to the military bloc. The idea is supported by the United States and especially by Eastern European countries, but has not yet generated the necessary consensus to start.

A 100 billion dollar fund

The other big idea from the NATO Foreign Ministers’ Summit this Wednesday and Thursday is the creation of a 100 billion dollar fund for weapons for Ukraine from 2024 to 2028.

I would be multiply by four military aid from the European Union (to which must be added bilateral aid from each EU member state) and raises even more doubts. A Belgian diplomat said this ‘Clarion’ that “we must not promise what will not be realized” and governments are already calculating how much it will cost: 30 billion for the United States, 20,000 for Germany, 10,000 for France, 7,000 for Italy, 5,000 for Spain, among others.

One way to swallow national diplomacies is for those 100 billion to include already announced bilateral financial aid commitments.

The ghost of Trump

Stoltenberg does not do it because there is no money to buy weapons (the biggest problem is not the money but that there are no weapons or ammunition to buy because the European military industry is not able to produce at the rate at which Ukraine shoots ) but for prepare the ground for a possible arrival of Donald Trump. The tycoon’s main complaint about NATO is that European governments They didn’t put in the money they should have put in. and the United States bears most of the costs of military organization.

The Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, said that in his opinion it is a bad idea (others have spoken in the same sense) because the same money would be counted twice, that of the European Union and that of NATO. And he recalled that, unlike the European Union, NATO does not have its own budgets more than for its administrative functioning.

Nor, Albares recalled, “way of issuing debt to raise funds, unlike the European Union”. NATO’s annual budget does not reach $5 billion when the European Union manages more than 160 billion euros every year and in recent years has gone into debt to finance funds worth almost a trillion euros.

The foreign ministers also prepared the big annual summit, which this time will take place in Washington from 9 to 11 July. One of the big decisions is If it is decided to start negotiations for Ukraine’s entry in the military bloc.

The formal invitation Ukrainians have had it since 2008but no one expects to integrate a country at war with Russia because it would automatically lead to a Russia-NATO war. Stoltenberg always tries to encourage the Ukrainians by saying that the question is not whether they will enter, but when they will enter.

Ukraine’s neighbors, such as the Baltic states or Poland, are pushing to advance the country’s NATO membership as quickly as possible, but others, including some from the United States and Germany, are dragging their feet and do not want formal commitments . None of them announce that they will close the door forever, but for now they don’t want to open it completely.