00:00The European Union and Ukraine have signed a deal to jointly boost the production of drones
00:05as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made her second visit to Kiev this year.
00:11The new framework is meant to combine the EU's industrial base with Ukraine's extensive expertise in drones
00:16gained across more than four years of fighting against Russian troops.
00:21Drones have become an integral part of modern warfare, which has allowed Kiev to overcome its manpower disadvantage
00:27and launch long-range strikes deep inside Russian territory.
00:31Zelensky says his country currently produces 10 million drones a year, a figure he has ambitiously set out to double.
00:38Funding for the initiative will come from two EU sources, the 90 billion euro support loan to Ukraine
00:44and the roughly 10 billion still available in the safe defense program.
00:49This deal will bring together Ukrainian ingenuity and Europe's industrial scale.
00:57And with this deal, our message is clear.
01:02Now is the time to invest in Ukraine, because this means to invest in Europe
01:09and to invest in our common security and our common future.
01:15In her speech announcing the deal, she detailed that Europe can gain from Ukraine's battleground-tested expertise,
01:21emphasizing that such a partnership is indispensable to both.
01:25The deal also features plans to further boost cooperation between the EU and Ukraine,
01:30with the Allies penciling plans to explore the production of ballistic and anti-ballistic missiles in the future.
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