LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - A total of nine countries have committed to supporting a new global defence bank, Mark Carney, the prime minister of host country Canada, said on Tuesday.
Carney said in a statement at the NATO Summit in Turkey's capital Ankara, that Albania, Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg, Romania, Turkey, and Ukraine had all pledged their support, and would define the initial policies and directives of the multilateral Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB) and shape its operations.
The bank's purpose is to bolster the defence of allied nations by raising up to £100 billion ($134 billion) in cheap finance.
Carney's government has taken charge of promoting DSRB this year and had been aiming to unveil around 10 national backers at the NATO summit, the country's lead negotiator told Reuters last week.
“Canada is leading to build the foundations of our collective security. The Defence, Security and Resilience Bank will unlock investment, strengthen our defence industrial base, and ensure that Canada and our Allies have the capacity to meet the challenges of a more dangerous and divided world together," Carney said.
Canada added that the partner countries had been invited to ratify the plans domestically, with the aim of making the DSRB operational in 2027.
It said Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine had underscored the need for allies to produce defence capabilities at speed and scale.
The DSRB's roster does not include any G7 nations other than Canada, but finance minister Anita Anand told Reuters earlier on the sidelines of the NATO Summit that the DSRB was open to further new members.
The DSRB is aiming to secure a triple-A credit rating, allowing it to provide low-interest loans to fund defence projects, particularly for nations and companies that currently struggle to access cheaper finance.
It also plans to provide loan guarantees to private banks to support defence industry scaling.
Canada and Luxembourg had already previously pledged their support.
(Reporting by Iain Withers, editing by Marc Jones)
