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Added on the 25/05/2022 15:12:17 - Copyright : France 24 EN
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says that the US-led defence alliance's European members are making "real progress" on their defence spending, with 2024 set to be the first year their spending amounts to "two percent of their combined GDP". Stoltenberg's comments come after Donald Trump rattled the alliance by saying he would "encourage" Russia to attack members who were not meeting the two percent obligation. SOUNDBITE
Britain will gradually boost its defence spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2030, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announces during a visit to Poland. "Over the next six years, we'll invest an additional 75 billion pounds in our defence," Sunak says alongside Jens Stoltenberg, NATO chief. SOUNDBITE
NATO's foreign ministers pose for a group photo at the end of the first day of talks at the US-led defence alliance's headquarters in Brussels debating the creation of a 100-billion-euro, five-year fund for Ukraine. The proposed fund is intended to help arm Kyiv in its fight with Russia. IMAGES
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that the United States stands by its "ironclad" commitments to defend longtime ally the Philippines against armed attack in the South China Sea. SOUNDBITE
NATO defence ministers hold a meeting in Brussels as the alliance debates how to maintain support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia despite ongoing delays in passing new US aid, which the alliance's chief Jens Stoltenberg says was already hurting Kyiv's forces on the battlefield. The US Senate on Tuesday approved a $95 billion package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan by a comfortable margin, but House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Donald Trump ally, has refused to put it to a vote in the lower chamber. IMAGES
The defence of Europe without Ukraine would be a "futile task", Kyiv's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tells the press as he arrives for a meeting of his North Atlantic Treaty Organization counterparts in Brussels. Speaking after greeting the US-led defence alliance's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Kuleba adds that he believes the Ukrainian armed forces to now be currently "the strongest and the most battle-hardened army in Europe" as its war against Russia's invading forces drags on towards a third year. Kuleba and his NATO counterparts on Wednesday are set to agree on a plan for reforms aimed at helping Ukraine towards eventual membership in the alliance. IMAGES