The United States of America has suspended arms sales to its North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) allies due to the shutdown, which has already become the longest in the country's history.
The American edition of Axios reported this with reference to the data of the US State Department.
The State Department estimates that the government shutdown has postponed exports of more than USD 5 billion worth of American weapons. These weapons were intended for NATO countries and Ukraine.
"This really hurts both our allies and partners and the US industry that supplies many of these critical items overseas," an unnamed senior State Department official told Axios.
The shutdown has affected shipments of AMRAAM missiles, Aegis missile defense systems, and HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems to Denmark, Croatia, and Poland, the official said.
The official added that the pending deals include both arms sales directly to NATO allies and licenses to private US defense companies to export weapons.
The Arms Export Control Act requires the US Congress to review arms sales proposals. Due to the shutdown, this is not possible, as many State Department employees whose job it is to inform congressmen and ensure the process is completed have been furloughed. This has led to a significant slowdown in work.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, last Tuesday, November 4, the US Senate reconvened to vote on the government funding bill, but again failed to get the required number of votes.
As a reminder, American airlines have been forced to reduce the number of flights due to the shutdown. The government shutdown has left more than 13,000 air traffic controllers without pay.
We also wrote that each week of the shutdown costs the US budget USD 15 billion. The government shutdown has been in effect since October 1.
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