US arms exports to Poland and other NATO countries delayed by shutdown

As a result of the shutdown, i.e. budget paralysis in the US, procedures related to the export of American weapons to NATO countries, including Poland, are delayed – the Axios website reported on Sunday. The delays will apply to weapons worth $5 billion.

According to the website, which cites a representative of the Department of State, deliveries of AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, Aegis anti-missile defense systems and HIMARS rocket artillery systems to countries such as Denmark, Croatia and Poland were disrupted. Poland placed orders for both AMRAAM and HIMARS missiles.

The delays are due to, among others: from sending State Department officials on forced leave whose task is to notify congressional committee staff about the approval of the transaction. According to a ministry official, the U.S. Department of State's office of political and military affairs had approximately 25 percent of its resources last month. its normal staff to handle arms sales.

It's both about selling weapons directly by the US government to NATO allies, as well as granting licenses private American companies to export weapons. The total value of the contracts is to be USD 5 billion. Some of these weapons are to be sold to NATO countries for Ukraine.

“Democrats are halting arms sales, including to our NATO allies, which harms America's industrial base and threatens our security and that of our partners,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said, as quoted by Axios.

The head of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, Jim Risch, stated that China and Russia benefit from the situation.

“Their actions to weaken the United States and our partners and allies become easier while our industrial base suffers and the needs of our allies remain unmet,” he said.

As a result of the 40-day shutdown related to the failure to adopt a new budget by Congress, approximately 750,000 people are on forced leave. federal employees, while others work without timely pay. A breakthrough in the impasse may come on Sunday, when the Senate will vote on the draft of a new version of the interim budget and the provisional budget providing funds for the functioning of the state until the end of January. If the vote is successful, it could pave the way to ending the shutdown in the next few days.

From Washington Oskar Górzyński (PAP)

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