MUNICH, February 19. /TASS/. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has described the Ukrainian crisis as an existential challenge to the system of European security and called for a "technological blitzkrieg."
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, he set key priorities for the European Union in the context of the Ukrainian crisis: to supply Ukraine with weapons and munitions EU countries have - in the short-term perspective, to carry out a "technological blitzkrieg" to recover capacities of Europe’s industries - in the medium-term perspective, and to regain influence in Africa and Latin America - in the long-term perspective.
"We are arming Ukraine because this war is a challenge for our security, is an existential challenge," he said. "[Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky and Ukrainians have a lot of applaudissements and not enough of ammunitions. That’s the paradox. They need less applauds but be better supplied with arms."
"We have to increase and accelerate our military support to Ukraine quickly. The first and the most urgent thing that political Europe has to do is to arms Ukraine," he said calling for accelerating "military support to Ukraine because Ukraine is in a critical situation from the point of view of ammunition available."
"This shortage of ammunition has to be solved. It’s a matter of weeks and this kind cannot be solved by going to join procurements and buying because any procurement that comes to the market will go at the queue of a long list of commands already passed by the member states. We have to use what we have, what the member states have and they have," he stressed.
"This is the matter of the ministers of defense who have to take this kind of decisions and there is going to be an extraordinary meeting on March 6-7 where we will propose to accelerate the processes that are already underway," he added.
In the medium-term perspective, the EU foreign policy chief called for a "technological blitzkrieg" to increase production of weapons and munitions in Europe. According to Borrell, EU countries will spend additional 70 billion euro on defense. France, in his words, will increase defense spending by 40% and Poland will double it.
As for the long-term perspective, he called on EU countries to work more actively with African and Latin American countries, which, as he admitted, distrust the West. He did not say however that African countries are a major source of resources for Europe’s industry, which is especially important now that the European Union has severed ties with Russia.
"We have to prove that we continue being a global actor not only fixing our political economic and military capacity on this neighborhood but taking very much into account. In order to face this deep resentment in Africa due to postcolonial reasons <…> or in Latin America, we have to engage more showing that we are defending universal values," he added.