Today at 01:04
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has commented on President Donald Trump’s recent claim that he had reached a deal with NATO under which the Alliance would pay for American weapons sent to Ukraine.
Speaking on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur, Rubio clarified that Trump was not referring to a brand-new mechanism for arms transfers, but rather to an already existing arrangement.
According to Rubio, this approach involves European countries purchasing U.S.-made weapons and then transferring them to Ukraine.
“In the end, some of the systems Ukraine needs simply aren’t produced in Europe. They will have to be sourced from the U.S.,” he said.
“Moreover, I want to point out that a number of defense items Ukraine requires are already in the stockpiles of our NATO allies… and some have already placed orders for them.”
He explained that the U.S. is encouraging its allies to donate needed equipment from their own reserves and then purchase replacements from American manufacturers.
“After all, it’s much faster to ship something from Germany to Ukraine than to order it from a factory and wait for it to be built. So there are several different approaches to the issue. But the key point is that there are existing resources in Europe that can be transferred to Ukraine, and the Europeans can then buy replacements from the U.S. I believe this is what the president was referring to yesterday,” Rubio said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier announced that Germany and Norway are already prepared to purchase three Patriot air defense systems for Ukraine from the U.S. manufacturer.
It has also been reported, unofficially, that Trump is planning to authorize — for the first time during his term — a $300 million weapons package for Ukraine from existing U.S. stockpiles, using presidential drawdown authority, a mechanism commonly employed by Joe Biden.
