Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, began on Monday, January 29, in Washington, a series of meetings focused on continuing American military aid for Ukraine so that it can counter Russian invasion, according to AFP.
Stoltenberg was received in the morning by the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, before holding discussions in the afternoon with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
On Tuesday, the NATO Secretary General is expected to appear before Congress to meet with Republican and Democratic officials who are negotiating a new budget package for Ukraine.
After supplying billions of dollars worth of weapons to Kiev since the beginning of the war, the administration of President Joe Biden ran out of funding at the end of 2023. The President has asked Congress to approve additional financing of around $61 billion, but negotiations with Republicans have stalled.
“The agreement currently being negotiated in Congress is actually a good deal because, using a fraction of the American military budget, we have managed to inflict damage and significantly weaken the Russian army,” Stoltenberg said Sunday on Fox News, adding: “so we must continue.”
Another topic of discussion concerns Sweden’s accession to NATO, as only one member of the Alliance, Hungary, still needs to ratify the accession, after Turkey gave the green light last week.
In exchange for Turkey’s ratification, the US government approved on Friday evening the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Ankara totaling $23 billion.
At the same time, Washington approved the sale of 40 F-35 jets to Greece for $8 billion. Both Athens and Ankara are NATO members.