00:00 NATO Allies are meeting at Germany's Ramstein Air Base to discuss military support for Ukraine.
00:05 Yesterday, Ukraine's President conveyed Kyiv's wish list to NATO Secretary General.
00:10 Vladimir Zelensky also calling on Jens Stoltenberg to help overcome the reluctance of some member
00:15 states in providing Ukraine with rockets, fighter jets and armoured vehicles.
00:21 "I expect NATO Allies at the summit to recommit to support Ukraine for as long as it takes.
00:29 With substantial military support to ensure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign nation
00:36 in Europe.
00:37 And I also expect NATO Allies to agree a multi-year programme to help Ukraine transition from
00:46 Soviet era equipment standards, doctrines to NATO standards and doctrines."
00:54 We can now go across to France 24's Dave Keating standing by in Brussels.
00:58 Dave, good afternoon to you.
01:00 What can we expect to come out of this meeting in Germany today?
01:05 Ukraine Defence Contact Group, that's a US-led initiative of all of the NATO countries plus
01:10 other non-NATO Allies that are supporting Ukraine.
01:14 And the big focus today is going to be on providing military equipment to Ukraine, specifically
01:19 armoured vehicles such as tanks.
01:23 This has been a big discussion.
01:25 There have been some announcements this week already such as Denmark and the Netherlands
01:30 announcing that they're going to send 14 Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
01:34 We're expecting some more announcements of that vein today.
01:37 But a big contentious issue today is going to be ammunition.
01:41 The EU has been slow to deliver the ammunition that it promised through its EU military fund.
01:48 And that's because there's a disagreement between EU countries about where that ammunition
01:52 should be bought.
01:53 France says it does not want to see all of that ammunition bought from the United States,
01:57 that the ammunition should be bought from EU providers, part of Macron's vision of European
02:02 sovereignty.
02:03 The issue is, of course, that that would mean that they would be mostly bought from France.
02:07 So that obviously has prompted some scepticism from other countries.
02:11 They're hoping to get an agreement on this at a meeting of foreign ministers here in
02:15 Brussels on Monday.
02:17 But in the meantime, before that agreement, they're looking for maybe some other formats
02:21 in which ammunition could be delivered, not through this EU fund.
02:25 Dave, yesterday we had NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who was in Ukraine, in Kiev
02:32 for the first time since the war broke out.
02:35 And when Vladimir Zelensky and Stoltenberg had the press conference yesterday, Zelensky
02:42 sort of outlined that he wanted Ukraine's relationship with NATO to change.
02:49 They have applied to join the military alliance, but will Ukraine be getting any sort of any
02:54 timeline at the upcoming NATO meeting in July?
02:58 Yes, that's specifically what Ukraine wants here.
03:02 I mean, Ukraine has technically been an invitee to NATO membership since 2008.
03:08 It was one of the last things that the George W. Bush administration did.
03:11 They kind of pushed through this session opening for Ukraine and Georgia over the wishes of
03:19 Germany and France.
03:20 I think since the outbreak of the war, the feeling is that Ukraine's membership in NATO
03:25 is probably an inevitability given the current situation.
03:29 However, the allies have been very reticent to put any kind of timetable on that.
03:34 Specifically what Ukraine wants is a timetable agreed at that next summit of NATO prime ministers
03:40 and presidents in Vilnius, Lithuania in July.
03:44 They're unlikely to get that, I think, based on what we've heard so far today.
03:47 This morning, Secretary General Stoltenberg came in saying that, look, the priority right
03:52 now has to be on ending the war.
03:54 We can't start a session talks until the war ends.
03:57 Now, many in Ukraine worry that that means the allies think that the war is going to
04:01 go on for many years.
04:02 The issue for the allies, of course, is that if Ukraine were to hypothetically join right
04:06 away, that would immediately put them at war with Russia if the war is still ongoing.
04:10 So I don't think we're going to get any agreement on a timetable either today or in July, but
04:15 Ukraine is going to keep pushing this issue.
04:17 They want some kind of gesture from the allies to show that membership is still on the table.
04:23 And that comment from Stoltenberg in Kiev that all the members still support NATO membership
04:28 doesn't seem to be quite enough to reassure them.
04:30 He also wants security guarantees in place.
04:33 Thank you very much for that, Dave.
04:34 Dave Keating reporting for us from Brussels.
