Polish Foreign Minister: Ukraine’s success ‘relevant to U.S. credibility’ | Wilnesh News

Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told CNBC that Ukraine’s victory over Russia in the war has become a matter of credibility for the United States.

“The success of Ukraine is now about the credibility of the United States. If the United States stops its support for Ukraine, I think America’s allies around the world will take notice and start hedging,” he told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick on Tuesday.

Aid to Ukraine has become a hotly contested topic among U.S. lawmakers in recent months, with a plan to provide the country worth about $61 billion currently on hold in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The bill was approved by the U.S. Senate in February but faces fierce debate in the Republican-led House of Representatives. Many Republican politicians have called for aid to be tied to funding for national security efforts at the U.S. southern border, and discussions have emerged about reforming the Senate-approved aid package into a loan program.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on social media platform X this week that he had told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, A loan would be the most likely outcome.

“In meeting with President Zelensky, I told him that given the crisis at the U.S. southern border and our massive debt, President Trump’s idea of ​​converting U.S. aid into interest-free, forgivable loans was the most likely path to before,” he explain.

Republican presidential candidate and former US President Trump has long criticized US support for Ukraine, claiming that the issue has nothing to do with the United States.Trump also said that if he is re-elected, he will Will consider allowing Russia to occupy parts of Ukraine He has previously had a positive attitude towards Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump has sent a mixed message, however, as he has also said he will do more to support Ukraine than President Joe Biden’s administration. His comments raised questions and concerns about what U.S. support for Ukraine would look like and whether it would cease if he were re-elected.

Ukraine has repeatedly urged the United States to move forward with the approved bill.Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba last week explain He met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss how to approve the bill.

“Failure to continue supporting Ukraine will seriously undermine U.S. leadership around the world and jeopardize U.S. national security,” Kuleba said in a statement. postal on social media platform X after the meeting.

Polish Prime Minister Sikorski also called on U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday to allow a vote on further support for Ukraine, saying that with the additional funding, Ukraine and its allies would not be at a disadvantage in a confrontation with Russia.

He said he hoped Ukraine would provide financial support ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November. Sikorski said Biden remains hopeful the vote will pass. A Polish delegation traveled to the White House last week to meet with Biden.

In the meantime, other countries need to lead by example, he added.

“To help your legislative branch make a decision, what we can do is give a good example, Poland spends more than 3% of its GDP on defense,” Sikorski told CNBC.

He also said that European institutions and other member states have provided far more aid to Ukraine than the United States, taking into account the funds committed by them, suggesting that the figure is about twice that of the United States.

“So we feel like we’ve given the United States a good encouragement, a good example to follow,” Sikorski said.

Research published last month by the Council on Foreign Relations Said that the United States’ aid to Ukraine far exceeds that of other countries, but ranks second among all EU institutions combined. The report also said that many European countries are making larger contributions relative to the size of their economies.