NATO hears Ukraine’s call for creating single defense industry complex – FM Kuleba

The relevant statement was made by Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba in a conversation with journalists in Brussels, following the first meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“The agreement, which has not been put on paper but has been heard in almost all speeches, – it is the approval of the initiative put forward by Ukraine regarding the need to develop the defense industry complex of EU and NATO countries as a whole mechanism. This is very important, because each country on its own is unable to meet the needs of Ukraine or its own state in terms of weapons and ammunition. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary that NATO and the EU start looking at their defense industries as a whole complex, lift all unnecessary regulatory restrictions, and have a common policy to support private businesses,” Kuleba noted.

In his words, the process of such unification is impossible without involving the Ukrainian companies, which will participate in joint efforts at various stages, from technological development to technology testing. Ukraine is expected to be one of the major consumers of the final product. In addition, Ukraine and NATO agreed to develop the new projects intended to increase the production capacity of Ukraine’s defense industry.

“We look at everything we do, first of all, through the lens of increasing the capabilities of our own defense industry. It is impossible to increase the production capacity of our defense industry to the required level without solving the issue of creating this integral system of defense industries of the Euro-Atlantic space. It is important that, as a result of these efforts, our defense industry will be integrated into NATO’s defense industry,” Kuleba explained.

The head of Ukrainian diplomacy mentioned that, thanks to cooperation with NATO, Ukraine was able to multiply ammunition production volumes, which is a great achievement of the country.

Other countries, having an adequate industrial capacity, are also increasing ammunition production volumes. But, all these production projects are facing a common obstacle, which is the lack of a sufficient amount of gunpowder produced by a limited number of countries, for example the United States, China and Norway.

“If the issue of gunpowder production is not comprehensively resolved, then we will reach a ceiling in the production of ammunition, above which we will not go. Solving this problem also requires joint efforts. I have no doubt that, as soon as this process is triggered, the defense industries of the West – and Ukraine is an integral part of the West – will be much more powerful than Russia’s defense industry,” Kuleba stressed.

A reminder that the first meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council at the level of foreign ministers took place in Brussels on November 29, 2023.