HARPSUND, Sweden (Reuters) -Nordic and Baltic states and Poland said on Wednesday they would in the coming months step up support for Ukraine, including to the country’s defence industry, and invest in making more ammunition available.
“We are committed to strengthening our deterrence, and defence, including resilience, against conventional as well as hybrid attacks, and to expanding sanctions against Russia as well as against those who enable Russia’s aggression,” the leaders of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Norway, Poland and Sweden said in a statement.
The leaders were meeting at the Swedish government’s country retreat in Harpsund, southwest of Stockholm, for talks covering transatlantic relations, regional security cooperation and a common policy on the war in Ukraine.
The election of Donald Trump to a second presidential term has raised questions about the United States’ commitment to supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia and about Washington’s role in NATO.
Many analysts believe that Europe will have to spend more on its own defence and on bolstering Ukraine’s military effort after Trump is inaugurated in January.
The Nordic and Baltic countries – several of which share a border with Russia – are among Ukraine’s biggest backers.
Aid from the Nordics, Baltics and Poland totals around 24 billion euros, according to the Kiel Institute’s Ukraine Support Tracker, second only to the United States in absolute terms.
“Europe needs to take a greater responsibility for its own security,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a separate statement.
“That is preconditioned on us increasing our cooperation and continuing to support Ukraine, which is fighting for both its own and our security, over the long term.”
(Reporting by Simon Johnson and Anna Ringstrom, editing by Louise Rasmussen and Gareth Jones; writing by Niklas Pollard; editing by Angus MacSwan)
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