MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd May, 2023) Countries cannot make individual decisions on the delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine because the issue is too complex and should be negotiated within a larger coalition, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said on Monday.
"We now took a must-on decision in training F-16 pilots together with a large crew (of countries). And the reason that this is so important is that this is truly something no country, certainly not the Netherlands, can decide on its own, this takes coalitions, this takes taking into account the concerns about all aspects by all (NATO) allies," he told reporters ahead of an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels.
Hoekstra added that there were "no taboos" for the Dutch government regarding the supply of conventional weapons to Ukraine.
NATO allies recently pledged to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets, the latest addition to the list of lethal weapons the West has provided to Ukraine as it gears up for a large-scale offensive against Russian forces. Yuri Sak, an adviser to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, told the Washington Post on Saturday that Kiev hopes to receive the first F-16s from foreign donors in late September or early October.
