Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the creation of a Defense Industries Alliance and a special Defense Fund during the first International Defense Industries Forum held on Friday in Kiev, according to his speech shared today on the presidency’s website. Ukrainian.
“Today, in this forum, we announce the creation of the Defense Industries Alliance, an alliance that values ??international law and is capable of working for the real protection of international law. I am not talking only about Ukraine, but also about the security of any nation in the world facing aggression,” he said.
He added that a corresponding basic declaration has been prepared as the basis of the alliance, which can be joined by manufacturers of weapons and military equipment from around the world who share this intention to “provide real protection against aggression” in these risky conditions of our time”.
He noted that the declaration has already been signed by 13 prominent companies that are willing “to build together with Ukraine a new arsenal of the free world.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs specified that there are already 38 companies from 19 countries that have joined the Defense Industries Alliance and that during the forum, Ukrainian companies signed twenty agreements and memorandums with foreign partners on the production of drones, repair and production of armored vehicles and ammunition.
“Among the cooperation formats are joint production, technology exchange, and component supply,” the statement added.
During the forum, Zelensi also indicated that Ukraine is developing a special economic regime for the defense industry, in order to “give any company that works for defense in Ukraine and with Ukraine, or that wants to come to Ukraine, every opportunity to realize their potential.
He also referred to the intention to create a special Defense Fund to provide additional resources, in particular, for the development of military production and support for corresponding cooperation, for the creation of new military facilities and programs necessary for defense and for the care of Ukrainian soldiers.
The fund’s resources are a plus to public spending on defense, defense production and private investment, he added, and specified that the fund will be replenished with dividends from state defense assets and profits from the sale of Russian assets. confiscated.
According to Zelensky, 252 defense companies participated in the forum, producing a full range of weapons and defense systems and solutions from more than thirty countries around the world.