Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will travel to Romania tomorrow, Monday, on the eve of a scheduled meeting of the foreign ministers of the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council on Tuesday and Wednesday in Bucharest. Mr. Nicolae Cioca and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania, Mr. Bogdan Aurescu. On 29 November, the Secretary-General will also meet with the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Romanian Parliament, Mr. Marcel Ciulacu. He will also participate in the annual Aspen - GMF Bucharest Forum where he will give a speech on November 29.
This comes as The New York Times said that the United States and NATO countries are working to refill their military arsenal after being exhausted by the military support provided to Ukraine, after the Russian-Ukrainian war entered its tenth month.
And the newspaper stated that when the Soviet Union collapsed, the countries of Europe reduced their defense budgets, armies, and arsenal in preparation for peace, and with the rise of al-Qaeda after nearly a decade, and after terrorism became the goal, it required various military investments, lighter and faster forces, and even the participation of NATO countries. The long war in Afghanistan cannot be compared to a ground war in Europe, relying heavily on artillery and tanks, which almost all the defense ministries did not think would ever happen again, but it did.
In Ukraine, that unimaginable European war is now taking place, consuming with it the modest stocks of artillery, ammunition and air defenses of what some call the European "bonsai" armies, after the name of the small Japanese tree. Even the United States, which is militarily powerful, has a limited stockpile of the weapons that Ukraine wants and needs, and Washington is unwilling to divert major weapons from sensitive regions such as Taiwan and Korea, where Beijing and Pyongyang are constantly testing limits.
 
 Now, after nine months of war, the West's fundamental unpreparedness has led to a mad struggle to supply Ukraine with what it needs while replenishing NATO stocks. And with both sides in the war consuming weapons and ammunition at a pace not seen since World War II, competition to keep supplies flowing has become a key front that could be critical to Ukraine's efforts.
 
 NATO officials say the amount of artillery used is staggering. In Afghanistan, NATO forces probably fired 300 artillery rounds a day, and had no real concerns about air defense. But in Ukraine, thousands of rounds can be fired daily and still desperately need air defense against Russian masts and drones.
 
 Camille Gand, a defense expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations and until recently an assistant secretary-general for defense investment at NATO, said a day in Ukraine is like a month or so in Afghanistan.