BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO defense ministers on Friday approved a plan to provide reliable long-term security aid and military training for Ukraine after delays in Western deliveries of funds, arms and ammunition helped invading Russian forces to seize the initiative on the battlefield.

Kyiv’s Western backers have mostly concentrated their efforts through the Pentagon-run Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a forum for around 50 countries to drum up the weapons and ammunition the war-ravaged country needs most.

The new plan would be a complementary effort. Announcing the move after chairing a meeting of defense ministers in Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that the effort would be headquartered at a U.S. military base in Wiesbaden, Germany and involve almost 700 staff.

He said that it would help to organize training for Ukrainian military personnel in member countries of the alliance, coordinate and plan donations of the equipment that Kyiv needs, and manage the transfer and repair of that military materiel.

The effort has been described as a way to “Trump proof” NATO backing for Ukraine, a reference to concern that former President Donald Trump might withdraw U.S. support for Kyiv should he return to office.

“It’s to make it proof to any situation,” Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting.

“We have to consider the fact that this (war) might go on for years. We want to have something in place that does not depend on specific persons, ministers, or whoever, but a structure that works,” she said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who leads a stridently nationalist government, has routinely hindered NATO and European Union efforts to help Ukraine. He threatened to veto the plan but agreed to let other allies move ahead if Budapest wasn’t forced to take part.

Kyiv’s outgunned forces are battling to hold back a bigger Russian army. Troop numbers, ammunition and air defenses have run low as the Kremlin’s forces try to cripple the national power supply and punch through the front line in eastern parts of the country.

Moscow has taken advantage of a lengthy delay in U.S. military aid. EU funds were also held up by political infighting.

Ukraine will need to weather the onslaught through the summer, military analysts say, and at the same time train more soldiers, build fortifications and hope that Western military aid deliveries speed up so that Kyiv can mount a new offensive next year.

Stoltenberg has expressed hopes that U.S. President Joe Biden and his counterparts will agree at their July 9-11 summit in Washington to maintain the funding level for military support they have provided Ukraine since Russia launched its full-fledged invasion in February 2022.

He estimates this at around 40 billion euros ($43 billion) worth of equipment each year.

“We don’t yet have agreement on that,” he told reporters after Friday’s meeting.

• Switzerland is hosting world leaders this weekend to discuss peace in Ukraine without Russia’s participation.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government excluded Russia from the talks, and Switzerland did not invite them.
• The conference is based on Zelenskyy’s 10-point peace plan from late 2022, aiming to rally international support.

Switzerland will host scores of world leaders this weekend to try to map out first steps toward peace in Ukraine even though Russia, which launched the ongoing war, won’t take part.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government didn’t want Russia involved, and the Swiss — aware of Moscow’s reservations about the talks — didn’t invite Russia. The Swiss insist Russia must be involved at some point, and hope it will join the process one day. Ukrainians, too, are considering that possibility.

The conference, underpinned by elements of a 10-point peace formula presented by Zelenskyy in late 2022, is unlikely to produce major results and is seen as a largely symbolic effort on the part of Kyiv to rally the international community and project strength against its better armed and numbered adversary.

ZELENSKYY ACCUSES CHINA AND RUSSIA OF UNDERMINING PEACE SUMMIT DURING VISIT TO MANILA

But the question looming over the summit will be how the two countries can move back from the brink and eventually silence the guns in a war that has cost hundreds of billions of dollars and caused hundreds and thousands of deaths and injuries, without Moscow attending.

The conflict has also led to international sanctions against nuclear-armed Russia and has raised tensions between NATO and Moscow. The summit comes as Russian forces have been making modest territorial gains in eastern and northeastern Ukraine, extending the grip they already hold on about a quarter of the country.

Here’s a look at what to expect from the weekend gathering at the Burgenstock Resort on a cliff overlooking Lake Lucerne.

Who’s going?

Among the stakes will be simple optics: How many countries the Swiss and Ukrainians can draw in. The bigger the turnout, the bigger the international push — and pressure — for peace will be, the thinking goes.

Swiss officials sent out some 160 invitations, and say about 90 delegations, including a handful of international organizations like the United Nations, will attend. Roughly half will be from Europe. Zelenskyy led a diplomatic push in Asia and beyond to rally participation.

Several dozen attendees will be heads of state or government, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Polish President Andrzej Duda, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

United States Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with Zelenskyy on Saturday on the sidelines of the summit, according to a senior Biden administration official. Harris, who is making a quick trip to Lucerne to take part in the opening day, is also expected to deliver an address before the gathering.

The official, who briefed a small group of reporters on the vice president’s plans on the condition of anonymity, said Harris intended to focus her engagements on “defending and strengthening the international rules-based order.”

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE UPCOMING SWISS SUMMIT ON UKRAINE’S PEACE PLAN

Who are the major no-shows?

U.S. President Joe Biden, who was wrapping up a visit to Italy on Friday for a Group of Seven summit, opted to dispatch Harris and national security adviser Jake Sullivan. The president, meanwhile, was headed to Los Angeles for a glitzy campaign fundraiser with actors George Clooney and Julia Roberts, as well as former President Barack Obama.

Biden and Zelenskyy signed a 10-year security agreement Thursday at the G7 summit.

Russia’s key ally China will not attend.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has said it believes any such international peace conference should involve both Russia and Ukraine, although Beijing supports efforts to bring the conflict to an end and is monitoring the developments in Switzerland.

The final list of attendees isn’t expected until late Friday, and question marks remain about how key developing countries like India, Brazil and Turkey might take part, if at all.

But so far, under half of the 193 United Nations member countries are planning to attend, testifying to a wait-and-see attitude in many world capitals.

“Russia does not have a lot of allies in this particular situation,” said Keith Krause, a professor of international security studies at the Graduate Institute in Geneva. “It has a number of states that are susceptible to being pressured, and a few that actually wish to stand aside, from what they see as a northern, U.S.-Russia, NATO-Russia confrontation.”

“They essentially don’t have — what they would consider — a dog in the fight,” he added.

What can be expected?

Naysayers have harrumphed that the peace summit will be short on substantial achievements toward peace without Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government doesn’t believe Switzerland, which has lined up behind European Union sanctions on Moscow over the war, is neutral.

Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s U.N. ambassador, said peace talks without Russia’s participation are “a road to nowhere.”

“In practice, the main goal is to present an ultimatum to the Russian Federation in the form of the so-called ‘peace plan’” from Zelenskyy, the ambassador was quoted as saying by Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti.

Participants are expected to unite around an outcome document or a joint plan, and Ukraine will have a lot of input into what it says. But ironing out language that delegations can agree upon is still a work in progress, and could explain why some countries aren’t yet saying whether they will attend.

Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said Ukrainian officials wanted countries that respect Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity to be invited. He said the basis of the talks should be a 10-point peace formula that Zelenskyy has presented, and he held out the possibility that Russia could be invited to a second such summit.

Speaking to reporters late Tuesday, Yermak said Ukraine and the other participants would be preparing a “joint plan” to unite around, “and we’re looking for the possibility in the second summit to invite representative of Russia, and together present this joint plan.”

Asked what would be the measure of a successful summit in Burgenstock, he replied: “We think it’s already a success because it’s a big number of countries (attending).”

SWITZERLAND RECKONS WITH HISTORIC NEUTRALITY AS IT PREPARES TO HOST UKRAINE PEACE SUMMIT

What is the Ukrainian 10-point peace formula?

Ukraine’s peace plan launched by Zelenskyy outlines 10 proposals that encapsulates the president’s step-by-step vision to end the war against Russia’s invasion, now in its third year.

The plan includes ambitious calls, including the withdrawal of Russian troops from occupied Ukrainian territory, the cessation of hostilities and restoring Ukraine’s state borders with Russia, including Crimea. That is an unlikely outcome at this stage in this war, as Ukraine is unable to negotiate from a position of strength. Moscow’s army has the upper hand in firepower and number of troops, while Kyiv’s momentum has been stalled by delays in Western military supplies.

That is likely why the most contentious elements of the plan are not being discussed.

Only three themes will be on the table at the summit: nuclear safety, including at the Russia-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant; humanitarian aid; and food security, not just in Ukraine but globally — notably the spillover effects of the war on Ukrainian agricultural production and exports.

Western officials in Kyiv said these themes cut across international interests and are easy for Kyiv to rally the international community around. But they do not encompass the tougher issues that can only be resolved with Moscow as a negotiating partner.

Russia’s hesitancy about the conference stems in part from its unwillingness to show any sign of acceptance of the Ukrainian peace formula, which it rejects, or any red lines set by Kyiv.

Putin has espoused a deal to be premised on a draft peace agreement negotiated in the early days of the war that included provisions for Ukraine’s neutral status and put limits on its armed forces while delaying talks on the status of Russian-occupied areas.

What’s the way forward?

Krause, of the Graduate Institute, said Ukraine needs to emerge from the conference with momentum — a reaffirmation of commitment from its top allies and partners around its bottom lines on issues like territorial integrity and future relationships, even if membership may be far off, in NATO or the European Union one day.

He said Ukraine will want to see a reaffirmation that it’s up to Kyiv to lay out the terms on which the war will end.

“I don’t think anybody is particularly deluded that this is going to give birth to a new peace plan, or even to some kind of agreement that stops the hostilities on the battlefield,” Krause said. “But as past wars have shown, including as far back as World War II, discussions about the contours of the peace begin long before the fighting stops on the battlefield.”

A new parliament is being shaped around the powerful central European People’s Party group with its coalition Socialist & Democrat, green and liberal allies, but with a strengthened far right adding fresh impetus and uncertainty to the process – all of which could affect the development of financial policies over the next five years.  

While there is growing desire among lawmakers to focus more on enforcement and implementation before more regulation, there are widespread differences among the political groups on how to boost longer term economic growth.  

“One key reason for Europe’s poor economic performance is low productivity, the lack of financing available for high-potential, high-risk businesses, and the barriers to innovative European firms building scale across the Union,” researchers from the think tank Centre for European Reform (CER) wrote in a post-election analysis.  

“Populist and far-right parties are likely to be a hindrance to many of these steps,” the CER analysts added, noting that reforms such as those needed to strengthen Capital Markets Union will probably be occupy the agenda of centrist MEPs.  

Also on the to-do list is the digital euro project, which aims to provide consumers with an alternative means of payment, and the revision of EU rules on payment services, where the Parliament wants to make online platforms liable for payment fraud.   

But who is most likely to influence these and other dossiers through a newly formed economic and finance committee in the Parliament?  

More than 25 full members of the Parliament’s economic committee are expected to be back for another five years, according to a Euronews analysis based on available provisional results. 

Among them are both committee chair Irene Tinagli (Italy/Socialists & Democrats) and vice-chairs Markus Ferber (Germany/EPP), Stéphanie Yon-Courtin (France/Renew Europe), Jonás Fernández (Spain/S&D) and Johan Van Overtveldt (Belgium/ECR). 

Others weren’t so lucky.  

Romanian liberal economist Dragoș Pîslaru, professor Marek Belka (Poland/S&D) and Eva Poptcheva (Spain/EPP), who led work to create a new anti-money laundering agency, were not re-elected.   

As the veterans check our pre-election list  take up their old roles alongside fresh faces – Euronews took a look at some of the interesting newcomers who might be destined for the committee. 

Five to watch:  

1. Sophie Wilmès (Belgium/Renew Europe)

Wilmès (49) is a former Belgian prime minister, the first woman to hold the position, and the successor to current European Council president Charles Michel.   

The Belgian led the list of the liberal Mouvement Reformateur (MR) party, which won around 540,000 votes in the June elections – equivalent to three of 22 seats.  

The MR’s top candidate studied communications and financial management, and also worked for a time as a financial officer for the European Commission and as a financial and economic consultant for a law firm.    

In 2015, she was budget and civil service minister until she became prime minister of Belgium from October 2019 to October 2020, when she also took on the role of deputy prime minister and foreign affairs minister.   

In the summer of 2022, she stepped down from her roles for personal reasons – but is now ready to shape EU policy.   

2. João Cotrim de Figueiredo (Portugal/Others)

Another interesting profile is that of businessman and a politician, liberal João Cotrim de Figueiredo (62).   

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Cotrim de Figueiredo won one of two seats for the Iniciativa Liberal (Liberal Initiative) party for the first time in the EU elections.   

An MBA holder and economics graduate with experience in the financial sector, between 2013 and 2016, he was chairman of the board of directors of Turismo de Portugal, and only became a politician in 2019, when he was elected as a deputy for the Lisbon constituency in the 2019 Portuguese legislative elections. 

3. Pasquale Tridico (Italy/NI)

Tridico (48) holds a PhD in Economics from the University Roma Tre and served as president of the National Institute of Social Security (INPS) from 2019 to 2023.  

He was involved in the reform of the Italian pension system and the implementation of a so-called ‘citizenship income’ initiative, a minimum income scheme, which might inspire his activity as an MEP.   

“The idea of a European basic income financed by all, with an increase in the European budget, and used on the basis of need, where the crisis bites the most, would amortise the social spending of a state,” Tridico said in an interview last year. 

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The Italian has published articles on economic growth, welfare models, sustainable development and inequality in various academic journals – and teaches courses on economic policy and labour economics.   

Now it’s his turn to shape future policy with the Five Star Movement party.    

4. Fabio de Masi (Germany/Others)

German-Italian MEP Fabio de Masi (44) was the leading candidate of Sahra Wagenknecht’s Alliance, a newly formed party put together by former members of Die Linke.   

He (and his party, which won six seats) will be another to watch in the next mandate.   

De Masi is an economist and has some previous experience in the European Parliament, where he was a member until 2017.   

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The economist was a member of the finance committee, as well as vice-chairman of a special committee investigating money laundering and tax evasion, due to his strong credentials in the fight against corruption.  

During his time in the German parliament (2017-2021), he headed an investigation into the collapse of German payments company Wirecard.    

5. Sérgio Gonçalves (Portugal/S&D)

In March Portugal went to the polls and saw a change of regime after eight years of Socialist-led government headed by Antonio Costa.   

A coalition of conservative forces won the national elections and the Portuguese Socialist Party decided to change its strategy for the EU elections.

Gonçalves, 45, is part of that new generation of Portuguese Socialists in Brussels and Strasbourg, with eight members – only one fewer than the last mandate.  

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From 2022 to 2023, he led the Portuguese Socialist Party in Madeira.   

Gonçalves has dedicated his professional career to the business sector, holding a degree in economics and a master’s degree in international management.   

MEPs will hold their first parliamentary committee meetings between 22 and 25 July.