Blinken: Biden administration determined "to spend every cent" for Ukraine to strengthen Trump's position
The Biden administration is determined “to spend every cent” in available funding for Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday at his last NATO foreign ministerial as top US diplomat.
Speaking ahead of a likely significant change in Ukraine policy under the incoming Trump administration, Blinken said he is trying “to give the incoming administration the strongest hand to play” on Ukraine and across the board.
“We are determined, and it’s fully my intent and the President’s intent, to spend every cent that we have available from the $61 billion that were authorized by Congress,” he said at a press conference in Brussels. CNN reported last week that the Pentagon is unlikely to use all of the billions of dollars authorized by Congress to arm Ukraine before President Joe Biden leaves office, according to two US officials and three defense officials.
Blinken emphasized that Ukraine must be allowed to make its own decisions about its future.
He said that NATO had continued “coordinating to ensure that Ukraine has the money, the munitions and the mobilized forces to fight as necessary through next year, or to be able to negotiate, but from a position of strength.”
“What we’re working to do in the time that we have left is to give Ukraine, to give our own country, to give all the allies and partners that support Ukraine the strongest possible hand to use next year and beyond,” he said.
“If Ukraine determines that it needs to continue the fight, we want to make sure it has what it needs to continue that fight – the money, the munitions, the mobilized forces” he said. “If it chooses to engage in a negotiation – and that assumes, of course, that Putin and Russia have any intent of doing that – then again, we want to make sure it’s from a position of strength.”
“What I’m trying to do, not just with Ukraine but across the board, is to give the incoming administration the strongest hand to play in all of these areas and to pass the baton in a way that they can hit the ground running, because the world doesn’t stop just because we have a political transition underway in the United States,” he said.
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