USA. Joe Biden’s adviser: the decision on handing over ATACMS missiles to Ukraine rests with the president

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President’s advisor USA for national security Jake Sullivan When asked about ATACMS missiles, which are at the top of Ukraine’s wish list, Sullivan stated at the Aspen Security Forum that the matter was the subject of recent talks between U.S. presidents and Ukraine in Vilnius.

– Whether we ultimately give ATACMS will be the decision of the president. He talked about it with President Zelensky and they are continuing this conversation, Sullivan said. He noted, however, that Ukraine already has long-range missiles donated to it by Great Britain and France – Storm Shadow/SCALP air-to-surface missiles.

However, Sullivan said his priority was to ensure Ukraine had an adequate supply of 155mm NATO artillery rounds, and admitted that he spent 30 minutes a day working on increasing the production of these rounds. He added that it was precisely the shortage of missiles that was the reason for sending cluster munitions to Ukraine.

“We decided to provide cluster munitions because the alternative was that they wouldn’t have enough missiles” to fight Russian forces, Biden’s adviser said. Sullivan also confirmed that Ukrainian F-16 pilot training will begin in August.

The adviser to the US president was also asked, among other things, about the fate of China’s foreign minister, former ambassador to the US Qin Gang, who has not appeared in public for almost a month. Qin did not attend a series of diplomatic meetings, including the ASEAN summit in Jakarta – according to Beijing – for health reasons. When asked if he expected to see Qin again, Sullivan replied that he had no idea.

– The only thing we know is that the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was scheduled to meet him at the recent ASEAN conference in Indonesia. He eventually met Wang Yi in his place and we have no more information,” Sullivan said.

Describing his own talks with the Chinese about establishing a secure framework for superpower competition, Sullivan stated that the PRC opposed them by comparing them to seat belts.

“The general Chinese approach to this seems like ‘if you wear a seatbelt in a car, you’ll have an incentive to drive faster and crazier, and then you’ll crash,'” he pointed out.

“We tried to explain to them that seat belts are a great analogy because wearing seat belts has dramatically reduced the costs and consequences of car accidents and is in itself a good thing both internationally and on the highway,” Sullivan said.