Trump and Rutte Announce Deal for U.S. to Send Ukraine Weapons Through NATO

TIME

Trump confirmed that the United States would send Patriot missile systems to Ukraine as part of a broader weapons package coordinated through NATO.

Transcript

00:00And we make the best equipment, the best missiles,

00:04the best of everything.

00:06The European nations know that.

00:09And we've made a deal today,

00:11and I'm going to have Mark speak about it,

00:12but we've made a deal today

00:14where we are going to be sending them weapons,

00:17and they're going to be paying for them.

00:19We, the United States, will not be having any payment made.

00:24We're not buying it, but we will manufacture it,

00:27and they're going to be paying for it.

00:30Our last meeting of a month ago was very successful

00:32in that they agreed to 5 percent,

00:34which is more than a trillion dollars a year,

00:36so they have a lot of money.

00:37And these are wealthy nations.

00:39They have a lot of money, and they want to do it.

00:41They feel very strongly about it,

00:43and we feel strongly about it, too.

00:45We're in for a lot of money, and we just,

00:47we don't want to do it anymore, and we can't.

00:50But we make the best,

00:51and we're going to be sending the best to NATO,

00:53and in some cases to maybe, at Mark's suggestion,

00:57if we go to Germany,

00:58where they're going to send early-on missiles,

01:01and they'll be replaced, and NATO's going to take care of it.

01:05It's going to be coordinated by NATO,

01:07and they're going to work very much with Matt Whittaker,

01:10who's right here, who's a great ambassador,

01:12and Matt's going to be coordinated.

01:13You better do a good job, Matt.

01:15I will.

01:15And if you could say a few words.

01:17Absolutely.

01:17Now, Mr. President, dear Donald, this is really big.

01:21This is really big.

01:22You called me on Thursday that you had taken a decision,

01:26and a decision is that you want Ukraine what it needs to have

01:31to maintain, to be able to defend itself against Russia,

01:35but you don't want Europeans to pay for it,

01:38which is totally logical.

01:40And this is building on the tremendous success

01:42of the NATO summit, the 5%, but also the decision

01:47to keep Ukraine strong, and the decision to increase

01:50our defense industrial production.

01:53So based on that, this is, that was Europe stepping up.

01:56This is, again, Europeans stepping up.

01:59So I've been in contact with many countries.

02:00I can tell you that at this moment Germany, massively,

02:04but also Finland, and Denmark, and Sweden, and Norway.

02:07We have the Kingdom, the Netherlands, Canada.

02:09They all want to be part of this,

02:11and this is only the first wave.

02:12There will be more.

02:13So what we will do is work through the NATO systems

02:16to make sure that we know what Ukrainians need,

02:19so that we can make packages.

02:20Of course, in a way, we discussed it this morning,

02:22as Pete Hex said, at the Pentagon,

02:25in a way that, of course, the US will put on its stockpiles

02:29necessary to defend this country.

02:30That's absolutely clear.

02:32But it will mean that Ukraine can get its hands

02:34on really massive numbers of military equipment,

02:40both for air defense, but also missiles,

02:43ammunition, et cetera, et cetera.

02:45So if I was Vladimir Putin today,

02:47and hear you speaking about what you were planning

02:49to do in 50 days, and this announcement,

02:52I would reconsider whether I should not

02:54take negotiations about Ukraine more seriously

02:57than I was doing at the moment,

02:58if I was Vladimir Putin.

03:00But when I'm in Ukraine, I think this is really

03:02great news for them.

03:03So I really want to thank you for that,

03:04and it means the Europeans paying for it.

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