Britain, Netherlands, Finland, Poland say they are making progress on defense plan

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative file photo — A British soldier fires at a target with a .50 caliber machine gun, at Bemowo Piskie Training Area, Poland, September 1, 2021. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Osvaldo Fuentes via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS))

WARSAW, July 6  -  Britain, the Netherlands, Finland and Poland are making "significant progress" on the Multilateral Defence Mechanism planned by the four nations and aim to establish it by 2027, they said in a joint statement on Monday.

Defence financing is set to be a key topic at this week's NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. The MDM is one of several competing initiatives aimed at channelling more private cash into rearming nations.

"We have benefited from the support of a broader group of allies in developing the technical details of this model," the four nations said in their statement.

They said they would work to expand the coalition of nations involved in the project and would move on to the next phase of developing the mechanism with countries that have declared their participation in autumn.

Another key project in the increasingly crowded field of defence financing initiatives is the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank.

Canada is aiming to announce around 10 founding nations for the DSRB at the NATO summit. The Polish finance ministry did not immediately respond to an emailed question about whether it was in talks to join the DSRB.

Britain had resisted joining the DSRB, but its finance minister Rachel Reeves said in the country's parliament in June that it was also now working with Canada on the project.

"The multilateral defence mechanism will enable us to procure jointly and stockpile equipment off the balance sheet, ensuring better value for money for taxpayers and enabling innovative forms of finance to fund our defence," Reeves said.

"We are also working closely with Canada on the multilateral defence mechanism and the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank, which lends to smaller businesses in the supply chain, so that we have one model to help us better fund defence in our country and across Europe."

 (Reporting by Alan Charlish, Barbara Erling, Editing by Alexandra Hudson, Aidan Lewis // REUTERS)