Speaker 1: I'm joined by the US Ambassador to NATO, Julian Smith,
Speaker 1: joins me Hair on the program ahead of next week's
Speaker 1: and NATO summit in Washington, d C. Ambassador, a pleasure
Speaker 1: to have you on the program. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: I want to dive right into a question a lot
Speaker 1: of people on both sides of the Atlantic are asking, which
Speaker 1: is sustainability of aid to Ukraine. From your perspective and
Speaker 1: from your visibility, how long can we count on that?
Speaker 2: Well, what I see here inside the NATO Alliance is
Speaker 2: strong unity by all thirty two allies to keep supporting
Speaker 2: our friends in Ukraine. This isn't just a case of
Speaker 2: the US providing important economic, humanitarian and security assistance. This
Speaker 2: is a case where all of our friends in NATO
Speaker 2: are doing their fair share. And let me just note
Speaker 2: that when Europeans in particular invest in capabilities to donate
Speaker 2: to the Ukrainians, they often come to the United States
Speaker 2: and purchase weapons and capabilities and assets from the US.
Speaker 2: Because they're best in class. We can get them quickly
Speaker 2: onto you into Ukraine, and the timelines for delivery are
Speaker 2: rather short. So this is an investment first and foremost
Speaker 2: in Ukraine. But I would note that the investments that
Speaker 2: we're making their come back and pay dividends in the
Speaker 2: United States as well.
Speaker 1: You emphasize the investments in Europe. Right now, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of questions around how sustainable even that ramp up
Speaker 1: in defenses from some of the NATO allies and of
Speaker 1: course from each country's defense. I have his number here, say,
Speaker 1: twenty three NATO allies are already at that two percent goal,
Speaker 1: despite Russia outspending Europe. Are you satisfied with the progress
Speaker 1: that Europe is making despite some of those political and
Speaker 1: arguably financial hurdles that they're facing.
Speaker 2: Ten years ago, allies came together and decided that every
Speaker 2: member of the Alliance would spend two percent of their
Speaker 2: own GDP on defense. When we made that pledge a
Speaker 2: decade ago, actually there were only three allies that met
Speaker 2: the target. So the big news that we have at
Speaker 2: the NATO summit coming up next week is that we're
Speaker 2: now at a point. Ten years later, we're twenty three
Speaker 2: allies now spend two percent. Now, your question was is
Speaker 2: that enough? Two points on that one, We've got to
Speaker 2: make sure that we get to thirty two, and every
Speaker 2: member of the Alliance has a plan in place to
Speaker 2: get there. So in the next couple of years we're
Speaker 2: going to face a situation where all members of the
Speaker 2: Alliance spend two percent. But here's the other point I
Speaker 2: would make. We have now multiple allies across the Alliance
Speaker 2: spending more than two percent. We have countries in Eastern Europe,
Speaker 2: the Nordic countries, the UK and others obviously the United
Speaker 2: States that spend more than two percent. So not only
Speaker 2: our allies meeting the commitment, they're stretching beyond it.
Speaker 1: Well, they're also talking a lot about there at least
Speaker 1: have been reports in the last forty eight hours or
Speaker 1: so that NATO particularly is talking about a special station
Speaker 1: in Kiev in particular, and is also talking about centralizing
Speaker 1: some of those operations when it comes to training, when
Speaker 1: it comes to troops, when it comes to weaponization. Can
Speaker 1: you walk us through the significance of that.
Speaker 2: Sure, So when we get to the summit next week,
Speaker 2: we're going to have a couple of different deliverables for Ukraine.
Speaker 2: One is that we are now here at NATO going
Speaker 2: to take over the coordination of some of the assistants
Speaker 2: that's flowing into Ukraine. We've had many years well two
Speaker 2: years where many countries have come together to offer assistance
Speaker 2: to Ukraine, and NATO is now going to be coordinating
Speaker 2: all of those efforts to bring order to all of
Speaker 2: the generous support being provided to them. NATO is also
Speaker 2: going to take on the coordination of training. We have
Speaker 2: a situation where many countries in Europe and the United
Speaker 2: States are providing training, and now NATO is saying they
Speaker 2: can coordinate those efforts again to bring greater coherence. In
Speaker 2: addition to those two initiatives, we will also have most
Speaker 2: likely a new senior civilian rep located in Kiev. This
Speaker 2: doesn't mean that the coordination of assistance will happen in Ukraine,
Speaker 2: but we will likely appoint someone to manage all of
Speaker 2: the good work that we're doing with the Ukrainians on
Speaker 2: modernizing their forces and building their future force from there
Speaker 2: in Kiev.
Speaker 1: Your predecessors Douglas Lute, Evo Dalder, as well the previous
Speaker 1: ambassadors to NATO have said that this is a move
Speaker 1: that basically trump proofs NATO, But in addition to doing that,
Speaker 1: it also protects against the rise of the far right
Speaker 1: that you're seeing in Europe. From your perspective, how dire
Speaker 1: is that need right now?
Speaker 2: Well, the new initiatives that I just mentioned for Ukraine
Speaker 2: and are actually being put in place so that we
Speaker 2: can bring greater coordination to all of the efforts that
Speaker 2: have sprung up over the last two plus years. It's
Speaker 2: not necessarily about guarding against political change. I mean, look,
Speaker 2: the Alliance is seventy five years old and it has
Speaker 2: dealt with many decades of political changes, different administrations coming
Speaker 2: in on both sides of the Atlantic, so we can
Speaker 2: cope with that irrespective of what happens. This is about
Speaker 2: helping the efforts that are being provided to support Ukraine,
Speaker 2: coordinating them and bring them all together under one roof.
Speaker 2: And NATO feels like it has some institutional advantage in
Speaker 2: doing that since it helped so many members in Eastern
Speaker 2: Europe transition into the Alliance to become full fledged members
Speaker 2: over the last twenty years. So modernizing, helping a country
Speaker 2: modernize its forces is something that we know how to
Speaker 2: do here in NATO HQ, and that's why NATO is
Speaker 2: moving out with these new initiatives.
Speaker 1: But Ambassador, for how long we're talking about the sustainability
Speaker 1: of AID. I'm curious how long from your perspective Ukraine
Speaker 1: is expected to need that kind of aid. Are we
Speaker 1: talking about years here, a decade, months, what kind of timeframe.
Speaker 2: Well, we can't predict with any certainty exactly how long
Speaker 2: the war in Ukraine will last. But let's make one
Speaker 2: thing clear. There's one person that started this war. That's
Speaker 2: President Putin. He started this war two plus years ago.
Speaker 2: He's the guy that could stop this war if he's
Speaker 2: so desired. So we will work with the Ukrainians to
Speaker 2: ensure that they have the assistance they need to defend
Speaker 2: their territory. But we will also work with the people
Speaker 2: of Ukraine towards peace and support the efforts that they've
Speaker 2: undertaken in recent months to move towards some sort of
Speaker 2: negotiated settlement.
Speaker 1: And Ambassador, a final question to you on the cooperation
Speaker 1: between Russia and China, in particular, not only when it
Speaker 1: comes to Ukraine, but an access as being formed, perhaps
Speaker 1: in response to NATO as well. How preventable is that?
Speaker 1: From your perspective? Is can anything be done to counteract it?
Speaker 2: We spend a lot of time here at NATO headquarters
Speaker 2: talking about the deepening relationship between the PRC and Russia.
Speaker 2: China takes every effort every chance it can get to
Speaker 2: argue that somehow it's a neutral player in this war
Speaker 2: in Ukraine. But in reality, the PRC is providing a
Speaker 2: long list of dual use components, things like machine tools
Speaker 2: and microelectronics that are enabling Russia to pursue this war
Speaker 2: of aggression in Ukraine. So here inside NATO, we're making
Speaker 2: sure that we can expose the fact that the PRC
Speaker 2: is no longer a neutral player and warr in China
Speaker 2: about the risks of getting behind Russia in this unprovoked
Speaker 2: war of aggression.