U.S. will ramp up efforts to strengthen NATO and support Ukraine - Blinken

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this in Brussels on Wednesday following a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"We have a very intensive and important agenda over the next couple of months. President Biden fully intends to drive through the tape and use every day to continue to do what we've done over these last four years, which is to strengthen this alliance. That's so critical for the security of the United States and the security of countries throughout Europe. We will continue to shore up everything we are doing for Ukraine to make sure that it can effectively defend itself against this Russian aggression," Blinken said.

He noted that today he had a "very productive discussion" with the NATO secretary general regarding support for Ukraine.

"We see increasingly the indivisibility of security between and among the Euro-Atlantic theater, the Indo-Pacific theater, the Middle East. It's critical that we find ways to work ever more closely together. One of the things that NATO has done in recent years is to strengthen its partnership with Indo-Pacific partners, and we will do more of that in the weeks and months ahead. We also took account of an alliance that has a lot of work to do in terms of continuing to strengthen its defense industrial base to make sure that its spending is focused on the necessary capabilities," Blinken said.

He recalled that now 23 of the NATO allies are at or above 2% of a GDP mark on defense spending, and this is good. Currently, it is necessary to make sure that this spending is focused where it needs to be focused.