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Added on the 27/03/2021 13:00:00 - Copyright : EFE Inglés
NATO foreign ministers meet for the NATO-Ukraine Council foreign ministers' session. One of the issues on the agenda is military aid to Kyiv. It comes on the 75th anniversary of the alliance, menaced by an aggressive Russia and the spectre of Donald Trump's return to power. IMAGES
As NATO celebrates its 75th anniversary in the shadow of the war in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba asks allies for more Patriot air defence systems. SOUNDBITE
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says that alliance members must guarantee long-term weapon deliveries for Ukraine, as ministers prepared to discuss a proposal for a 100-billion-euro, five-year fund. Speaking in Brussels, where NATO foreign ministers are meeting to forge a support package by a July summit in Washington, Stoltenberg says "we must ensure reliable and predictable security assistance to Ukraine for the long haul." "We must ensure reliable and predictable security assistance to Ukraine for the long haul so that we rely less on the voluntary contributions and more on NATO commitments, less on short-term offers and more on multi-year pledges," Stoltenberg says as NATO foreign ministers met in Brussels. SOUNDBITE
Polish minister of defence Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz and Parliament speaker Szymon Holownia attend a ceremony in Warsaw celebrating 25 years since Poland's accession to NATO. A day earlier, President Andrzej Duda urged NATO members to increase their defence spending to three percent of GDP in response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine. IMAGES
Sweden becomes the 32nd member of NATO with the handover of documents at a ceremony in Washington, turning the page on two centuries of non-alignment following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "Good things come to those who wait," Secretary of State Antony Blinken says as he accepts the accession documents from Sweden's prime minister, following ratification by the 31 other alliance members. SOUNDBITE