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NATO: Press remarks by High Representative Josep Borrell upon arrival at the Defence Ministerial Meeting

European External Action Service (EEAS)

15.06.2023
Brussels, 15/06/2023
EEAS Press Team

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Today's meetings show the importance of the cooperation between NATO and the European Union to [to support Ukraine and] boost the capacity of our defence industry.

From our side, we will continue supporting Ukraine. I have a figure to show how important is this support: we have reached about 24,000 Ukrainian soldiers being trained in different Member States. This figure will continue growing.

Putin continues terrorising, attacking and destroying civilian infrastructure, and killing civilians. So, we have to increase our support and provide [Ukraine] with more sophisticated arms to face these attacks.

That is why we have launched this initiative to provide ammunition [in addition to other equipment such as] drones and artillery. Ammunition is being done. We have already received €960 million [worth] of reimbursement requests by the Member States of the first track to provide ammunition. And as of July, we will have the contracts passed with industry on the joint procurement launched by the European Defence Agency (EDA).

So, the two tracks which are under the control of the High Representative [for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy] are going well. The third track - also - was in the [European] Parliament to provide support to the industry to ramp-up their capacities.

The cooperation between NATO and the European Union goes further than the conflict in Ukraine. For example, in Kosovo, these days have shown how important our cooperation is. I want to thank the KFOR troops and the KFOR Commander [Division General Angelo Michele Ristuccia] for the work they have been doing in North Kosovo.

You know that there has been an incident around the arrest of three police officers from Kosovo. We are trying to exactly determine what has happened. We are in close contact with the KFOR command and with both parties to see what has really happened there that led to these arrests.

In the meantime, I have to call for calm on the ground, and seeing the situation deteriorating every day, we are - again - in crisis management mode. I will call the two parties - Kosovo and Serbia - for a crisis management meeting here in Brussels next week.

Thank you.