Ukraine aims to expand domestic arms production to 50 percent of needs within 6 months
Advertisement
The need to adequately arm Ukraine's military is pressing as Russia looks to drive forward its summer offensive and pounds Ukrainian cities with hundreds of drones and ballistic and cruise missiles.
Meanwhile, it remained unclear when promises of U.S.-made weapons, especially Patriot missile systems crucial for stretched Ukrainian air defenses, might reach Ukraine. U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to send the weaponry, but it will be paid for by European countries.
NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, told the Associated Press Thursday that 'preparations are underway' for weapons transfers to Ukraine and that NATO is working 'very closely' with Germany to transfer Patriot systems.
Grynkewich said at a military event in Wiesbaden, Germany, that he had been ordered to 'move (the weapons) out as quickly as possible.' He said the number of weapons being transferred is classified.
Advertisement
'We're already in preparation phase for the first tranche of capability to start moving with respect to Patriots,' he said.
An expert working group under Grynkewich is to discuss concrete planning 'very quickly but also with corresponding caution,' German Defense Ministry spokesperson Mitko Müller said Wednesday.
He said that the 'exact modalities' are still being worked out, as are the 'modalities of what systems will be supplied.'
He added: 'Regarding the systems that we are talking about, I can't confirm that anything is currently on the way. I'm not aware of that.'
NATO chief Mark Rutte said in Washington on Monday that the alliance is coordinating the military support with funding from allies in Europe and Canada. He said there were commitments from Germany, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Canada 'with more expected to follow.'
Ukraine has also developed its own long-range drones, which it uses to strike deep inside Russia .
Russian air defenses shot down 122 Ukrainian drones overnight, the country's defense ministry said Thursday. The wave of drones caused flights to be grounded at airports in Moscow and St Petersburg, although most of the drones were reportedly destroyed over the border regions of Bryansk and Kursk.
Burrows reported from Wiesbaden, Germany. Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 minutes ago
- Yahoo
US tariff tussles stuff of nightmares for Bordeaux winemakers
French wine producers, already reeling from a downturn in their market, still do not know how bitter a taste the US tariffs on wine will leave on their palates. In southwestern France, around the Bordeaux region's famed vineyards, months of talk on what US President Donald Trump will decide on tariffs have been the stuff of nightmares for producers as they look on helplessly. The United States is by far the top export market for Bordeaux's wine, accounting for 400 million euros ($470 million) worth of annual sales -- or about 20 percent of the total. China lags behind with 300 million euros ahead of the United Kingdom with 200 million. Sunday's announcement of a trade deal between the United States and the European Union did not clear up what tariffs European wine and spirits producers will face in the United States. While Trump said European exports face 15 percent tariffs across the board, both sides said there would be carve-outs for certain sectors. EU head Ursula Von der Leyen said the bloc still hoped to secure further so-called "zero-for-zero" agreements, notably for alcohol, which she hoped to be "sorted out" in the coming days. Philippe Tapie, chairman of regional traders' union Bordeaux Negoce, which represents more than 90 percent of the wine trade in the Bordeaux area, is worried by the uncertainty. "One day, it is white, the next it is black -- the US administration can change its mind from one day to the next and we have no visibility," he told AFP. In mid-March, Trump had threatened Brussels with 200 percent tariffs on alcohol in response to a proposed EU tax on US bourbon. Then in April he brandished a new threat of 20 percent across the board on EU products, a threat ultimately suspended. Since then, the level first held at ten percent but, in late May, the US leader threatened to revert to 50 percent before pivoting to 30 percent starting August 1st, the deadline for the negotiations with the EU that led to a preliminary accord after Trump and Von der Leyen met in Scotland on Sunday. - In vino, veritas is unpredictability - "At 10 percent or 15 percent, we'll find solutions. At 30 percent, no. End of story," Tapie warned just ahead of the announcement as he criticised a "totally unpredictable American administration". To export wine, "there's a minimum of 30 days by boat. If you go to California, it's 60 days. We can't think in terms of weeks," says Tapie, who says he has "never been confronted with such a situation" in 30 years of business. Twins Bordeaux, one of Bordeaux's leading wine merchants, also laments the tariffs' impact. "The American market represents about a third of our turnover, or around 30 million euros," explains Sebastien Moses, co-director and co-owner of Twins, which usually ships upwards of a million bottles a year to the United States. Since January, "our turnover must have fallen by 50 percent compared to last year," he says. "So far, we've managed to save the situation, because as soon as Donald Trump was elected we anticipated this and sent as much stock as possible to the US," explains Moses, though longer term he says this is not a "stable" strategy. - Fly it out? - As an attempted work around Twins Bordeaux even shipped cases of around 10,000 bottles by air in March. "But only very expensive wines, at no less than 150-200 euros per bottle, because by air it's at least two and a half times the price of shipping by sea," he said. For Bordeaux wine merchant Bouey, the US market represents less than 10 percent of its exports. "We have long since undertaken a geographical expansion. Faced with the global chaos, commercial strategies can no longer be based on a single- or dual-country strategy," Jacques Bouey, its CEO, told AFP in April. The tariffs come with the industry already struggling with declining consumption that has led to overproduction and a collapse in bulk prices. By early 2023, a third of Bordeaux's approximately 5,000 wine growers admitted to being in difficulty. "We're starting to become world champions in terms of accumulating problems," complained Tapie. mer/gf/vmt/cw/gv/tc
The Hill
5 minutes ago
- The Hill
Here are the trade deals Trump has made ahead of Aug. 1 tariffs
After months of delays, President Trump's long-awaited global tariffs are slated to take effect at the end of this week. Trump on April 2 announced 'reciprocal' tariffs on dozens of other countries, using trade deficits to help calculate the tariff rate. But a week later, he lowered those rates to 10 percent for three months as markets reacted negatively, allowing time for countries to negotiate. As the 90-day window was nearing its end earlier this month, Trump sent letters to countries informing them of the new 'reciprocal' rate that, he said, would take effect Aug. 1. The White House has managed to secure some significant trade deals since the president's unprecedented sweeping tariffs were first announced in the spring. Trump on Sunday announced a trade deal with the European Union, setting tariffs at 15 percent for European goods, including automobiles — lower than the 30 percent rate Trump had threatened to impose on the EU next month. The EU will purchase $750 billion worth of energy from the U.S. as part of the deal, Trump announced, and agreed to invest in the U.S. $600 billion more than the current investments for other goods. Trump similarly reached a deal last week with Japan, setting a 15 percent tariff on Japanese goods — lower than lower the 25 percent tariff Trump had threatened to impose. Also in that deal, Trump said Japan would invest $550 billion in projects in the U.S. and would open its markets to U.S. automobiles, rice and other agricultural products. The Philippines agreed to a trade deal with the United States that would lower U.S. tariffs on its exports to from 20 percent to 19 percent, Trump announced last week. Trump had originally set a 17 percent duty on imports from the Philippines in April before warning that figure would rise to 20 percent last month. An agreement with Indonesia would also set a tariff rate of 19 percent on its imports. Trump announced an agreement with the United Kingdom in early May, in what is considered the first major deal struck since the president announced his sweeping tariffs in April. That agreement set the tariff rate at 10 percent, down from 25 percent. The U.K. is allowed to export 100,000 cars to the U.S. at a 10-percent tariff rate, as opposed to the 25-percent rate announced March 26, marking a win for the British car industry. Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are expected to talk about the implementation of that deal when they meet Monday in Scotland. The US and China announced in late May the contours of a deal to stave off a trade war between the two countries temporarily. The U.S. reduced its tariff rate from 145 percent to 30 percent, and China reduced its rate from 125 percent to 10 percent. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng are set to hold talks Monday for the third time this year, with The Associated Press reporting that China is expected to press for the U.S. to remove its 20 percent tariff related to fentanyl. Both countries have an additional 10 percent baseline tariff in place. The White House sent dozens of letters this month informing countries of what they should expect their tariff rate to be, come Aug. 1. Trump has insisted he would not further extend the tariff deadline, but Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that the president would be open to continuing discussions even after the tariffs are in place. For countries that have yet to secure a deal with the U.S., here are the tariff rates set to take effect on Aug. 1: Canada: 35 percent Mexico: 30 percent South Korea: 25 percent South Africa: 30 percent Kazakhstan: 25 percent Laos: 40 percent Malaysia: 25 percent Myanmar: 40 percent Tunisia: 25 percent Bosnia and Herzegovina: 30 percent Bangladesh: 35 percent Serbia: 35 percent Cambodia: 36 percent Thailand: 36 percent Libya: 30 percent Iraq: 30 percent Algeria: 30 percent Moldova: 25 percent Brunei: 25 percent Sri Lanka: 30 percent Brazil: 50 percent
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
US, China to launch new talks on tariff truce extension, easing path for Trump-Xi meeting
By David Lawder STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Top U.S. and Chinese economic officials will resume talks in Stockholm on Monday to try to tackle longstanding economic disputes at the centre of a trade war between the world's top two economies, aiming to extend a truce by three months and keeping sharply higher tariffs at bay. China is facing an August 12 deadline to reach a durable tariff agreement with President Donald Trump's administration, after Beijing and Washington reached preliminary deals in May and June to end weeks of escalating tit-for-tat tariffs and a cut-off of rare earth minerals. Without an agreement, global supply chains could face renewed turmoil from U.S. duties snapping back to triple-digit levels that would amount to a bilateral trade embargo. The Stockholm talks come hot on the heels of Trump's biggest trade deal yet with the European Union on Sunday for a 15% tariff on most EU goods exports to the U.S., including autos. The bloc will also buy $750 billion worth of American energy and make $600 billion worth of U.S. investments in coming years. No similar breakthrough is expected in the U.S.-China talks but trade analysts said that another 90-day extension of a tariff and export control truce struck in mid-May was likely. An extension of that length would prevent further escalation and facilitate planning for a potential meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in late October or early November. A U.S. Treasury spokesperson declined comment on a South China Morning Post report quoting unnamed sources as saying the two sides would refrain from introducing new tariffs or other steps that could escalate the trade war for another 90 days. Trump's administration is poised to impose new sectoral tariffs that will impact China within weeks, including on semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, ship-to-shore cranes and other products. "We're very close to a deal with China. We really sort of made a deal with China, but we'll see how that goes," Trump told reporters on Sunday before European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen struck their tariff deal. DEEPER ISSUES Previous U.S.-China trade talks in Geneva and London in May and June focused on bringing U.S. and Chinese retaliatory tariffs down from triple-digit levels and restoring the flow of rare earth minerals halted by China and Nvidia's H20 AI chips and other goods halted by the United States. So far, the talks have not delved into broader economic issues. They include U.S. complaints that China's state-led, export-driven model is flooding world markets with cheap goods, and Beijing's complaints that U.S. national security export controls on tech goods seek to stunt Chinese growth. "Geneva and London were really just about trying to get the relationship back on track so that they could, at some point, actually negotiate about the issues which animate the disagreement between the countries in the first place," said Scott Kennedy, a China economics expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "I'd be surprised if there is an early harvest on some of these things but an extension of the ceasefire for another 90 days seems to be the most likely outcome," Kennedy said. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has already flagged a deadline extension and has said he wants China to rebalance its economy away from exports to more domestic consumption -- a decades-long goal for U.S. policymakers. Analysts say the U.S.-China negotiations are far more complex than those with other Asian countries and will require more time. China's grip on the global market for rare earth minerals and magnets, used in everything from military hardware to car windshield wiper motors, has proved to be an effective leverage point on U.S. industries. TRUMP-XI MEETING? In the background of the talks is speculation about a possible meeting between Trump and Xi in late October. Trump has said he will decide soon on a landmark trip to China, and a new flare-up of tariffs and export controls would likely derail planning. Sun Chenghao, a fellow at Tsinghua University's Center for International Security and Strategy in Beijing, said that a Trump-Xi summit would be an opportunity for the U.S. to lower the 20% tariffs on Chinese goods related to fentanyl. In exchange, he said the Chinese side could make good on its 2020 pledge to increase purchases of U.S. farm products and other goods. "The future prospect of the heads of state summit is very beneficial to the negotiations because everyone wants to reach an agreement or pave the way in advance," Sun said. Still, China will likely request a reduction of multi-layered U.S. tariffs totaling 55% on most goods and further easing of U.S. high-tech export controls, analysts said. Beijing has argued that such purchases would help reduce the U.S. trade deficit with China, which reached $295.5 billion in 2024.
