BERLIN, 19 Aug (AP) \u2014 German officials on Monday rejected suggestions that national budget constraints could hurt weapons deliveries to Ukraine. Berlin is its biggest supplier after the United States.<\/p>\n
The German government hopes a $50 billion international loan package funded by interest on profits from frozen Russian assets will ease some of the strain of financing military support to Kyiv starting next year.<\/p>\n
Weekend reports that aid financing could be curbed by Germany\u2019s domestic budget concerns drew criticism from some in the governing coalition.<\/p>\n
Chancellor Olaf Scholz\u2019s government has struggled to balance the priorities of three ideologically disparate parties and produce budgets that comply with Germany\u2019s strict self-imposed rules on running up debt.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s budget foresees nearly 7.5 billion euros ($8.3 billion) in military aid for Ukraine while next year\u2019s plan is for 4 billion euros, a figure that could increase as the budget goes through parliament.<\/p>\n
The government hopes the loan package for Ukraine that Group of Seven leaders agreed to in June will play a growing role in financing aid, with Kyiv procuring weapons directly. Interest earned on profits from Russia\u2019s frozen central bank assets would be used as collateral.<\/p>\n
German government spokesperson Wolfgang B\u00fcchner said Germany is confident that the system will be set up by the end of this year.<\/p>\n
B\u00fcchner said \u201cthere is no European state that has planned more support for Ukraine, including next year\u201d and it\u2019s reasonable for Germany\u2019s planned support to diminish in coming years as the \u201cwindfall profits\u201d from seized Russian assets come into play.<\/p>\n
\u201cGermany remains absolutely engaged, and the chancellor\u2019s word is still valid that support for Ukraine will be continued for as long as necessary, and that no one, above all the Russian president, can hope that we will let up,\u201d he told reporters in Berlin.<\/p>\n
A letter from Finance Minister Christian Lindner to the defense and foreign ministers, cited by German news agency dpa on Saturday, said additional \u201cnew measures\u201d on aid to Ukraine could only be embarked on if financing is secured in the budget plans.<\/p>\n
However, Defense Ministry spokesperson Arne Collatz said all ministries are convinced that \u201cpragmatic solutions\u201d will be found for any short-term needs that arise, and the Finance Ministry said it\u2019s prepared to look at such additional requirements.<\/p>\n
Collatz and B\u00fcchner dismissed suggestions that IRIS-T air defense systems, for example, might not be delivered as pledged.<\/p>\n
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BERLIN, 19 Aug (AP) \u2014 German officials on Monday rejected suggestions that national budget constraints could hurt weapons deliveries to Ukraine. Berlin is its biggest supplier after the United States. The German government hopes a $50 billion international loan package funded by interest on profits from frozen Russian assets will ease some of the strain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-246724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}