Biden Will Sign 10-Year Pact to Aid Ukraine’s Military, Officials Say
President Biden will sign a 10-year security agreement with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Thursday, an effort to signal a long-term American commitment to the country’s future as an independent and sovereign state, an administration official said. But the accord could easily be upended by the coming American presidential election.
The deal — whose final details were expected to be announced later Thursday — will outline a long-term effort to train and equip Ukraine’s forces, promising to provide more modern weapons and help the Ukrainians build their own self-sustaining military industry that is capable of producing its own arms, U.S. officials said.
At the Group of 7 summit in Italy on Thursday, Mr. Biden and Mr. Zelensky “will sign a bilateral security agreement making clear our support will last long into the future and pledging continued cooperation, particularly in the defense and security space,” the administration official, Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, told reporters en route to the summit.
The accord is essentially an executive agreement between two presidents.
It is modeled on the kind of long-term security agreements that the United States has with Israel. But the “Israel model” is based on a congressional agreement to provide billions of dollars in aid. The agreement with Ukraine would carry a commitment by the Biden administration only to work with Congress on long-term funding.
Given the bitter monthslong wrangling over the $60 billon in aid to Ukraine that Congress passed this spring, there is little appetite for bringing the issue up again until next year. If Mr. Biden were no longer in office, that commitment would mean little.
The new accord does not commit the United States to send forces in to defend Ukrainian territory. According to two administration officials, it only requires the United States to “consult” with Ukraine about its needs within hours of any attack on the country.
