U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (l-r), U.S. President Joe Biden and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan during a bilateral meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Kishida in Hiroshima. © Susan Walsh/AP/dpa
Jake Sullivan has commented on the decision of the F-16 commitment to Ukraine. US President Biden's National Security Advisor rules out a possible potential for escalation in the conflict.
Hiroshima - The U.S. government wants to dispel the impression that American support for a fighter jet coalition for Ukraine is a political U-turn.
"Nothing has changed," US President Joe Biden's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan. The U.S. had never taken U.S. F-16 fighter jets off the table before. Before that, however, there was not the time for it.
Biden had informed the heads of state and government of the G7 countries on Friday in Hiroshima that the United States will support the training of Ukrainian pilots on fourth-generation fighter jets, including the F-16. First of all, pilots should be trained. Then it will be decided when and how many aircraft will be delivered and who will provide them. Earlier, the US government had rejected demands from Kiev for F-16 jets for months.
"Timing is right from our point of view"
Sullivan said that the decision on arms deliveries to Ukraine had followed the requirements of the war from the very beginning. The U.S. had delivered everything it promised. Now we have "reached a point where it is time to look to the future" and assess what the Ukrainian armed forces need in the long term to deter and repel Russian aggression. And that's where fighter jets come in.
Asked whether the lengthy training of Ukrainian pilots on the fighter jets should not have started much earlier, Sullivan said that, according to the US assessment, the F-16s would not be needed on the battlefield now, but only for the long-term deployment of the Ukrainian armed forces. "And so, from our point of view, the timing is right." Sullivan explicitly did not comment on how long the training of Ukrainian pilots will take and when a decision could be made on a specific delivery of jets to Kyiv.
Asked about a possible potential for escalation in the war, because such jets could possibly be used for attacks over Russian territory, Sullivan emphasized that all American arms deliveries to Ukraine are fundamentally subject to the premise that the US does not facilitate or support any attacks on Russian soil. So far, Ukraine has clearly adhered to this. Dpa