By Mike Stone and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. and Ukrainian government representatives signed an agreement to speed weapons co-production and data sharing at a conference in Washington on Wednesday.
"Ukraine becoming more self-sufficient in weapons production obviously alleviates the long term need for continued supply of weapons from the United States and other Western countries," Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan told Reuters in an interview. "So they ramp up and we can, over time, ramp down the extent of the necessary deliveries."
The letter of intent was signed at a meeting of U.S. and Ukrainian industry and government representatives and "will prioritize co-production and technical data exchange to address the urgent operational needs of the armed forces in Ukraine," Jason Israel, the White House National Security Council's Director for Defense Policy and Strategy told an audience of more than 200 gathered in the Department of Commerce auditorium.
Areas of concentration include "air defense systems, repair and sustainment and production of critical munitions," Israel told the audience.
Sullivan told Reuters that the goal was to facilitate licensing, technology transfer, funding, partnerships and co-production that will eventually involve brick and mortar "Ukrainian outfits with Ukrainian expertise relying upon those licenses and tech transfer - and so forth - from U.S. companies and European companies."
Sullivan did not go into which systems the U.S. was comfortable licensing to Ukraine, but said there was a range including large companies like Boeing, drone maker General Atomics to technology companies like Amentum Services and Leidos Holdings Inc .
The letter was signed by the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer Bill LaPlante, Ukraine's Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov and its Minister for Strategic Industries, Oleksandr Kamyshin.
The three-day conference kicked off on Wednesday and included high-level speakers from both governments including U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Ukraine's Head of the Office of the President Andriyy Yermak and the Minister of Defense.
The event is being hosted by the U.S. Department of Commerce and is part of a U.S. government effort to increase weapons production in support of Ukraine.
(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)
