Brussels 31.01.2024 The meeting of the Defence ministers was hosted by the Belgian, Ludivine Dedonder, and was chaired by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell. The meeting was as well attended by the EU Defence Policy Directors, PSC ambassadors, advisors, military and civil EU representatives.

The meeting focused on deepening political cooperation and reflection on security and defence related-affairs while simultaneously providing an opportunity for informal exchanges between the EU Ministers. The agenda and topics were determined in close collaboration between the European External Action Service and the presidency.

During the meeting, the ministers listened to a video message from the Ukranian Minister of Defence Mr. Umerov on the situation in the field. Then EU Ministers of Defence discussed the way ahead for EU’s support to Ukraine in the context of the War of Agression imposed by Russia. Thereafter, the EU Ministers had exchanges of views on the Defence readiness i.e. the further operationalisation of the EU Rapid Deployment Capacity as well as on the strenghtening of the European defence technological and industrial base and the upcoming European Defence Industry Strategy.

In the presence of the NATO Assistant Secretary General (Mr Van Weel), the UN Under-Secretary General (Mr. Lacroix) and the Chair of the European Parliamant’s Subcommittee on Security and Defence (Mrs Loiseau), EU Ministers of Defence gave their perspectives on the operational challenges in the Sahel Region and ongoing developments in the Red Sea.

The objective of the meeting was to exchange ideas, provide national points of view, and seek consent on current security issues, progresses, and challenges faced in the field of EU Common Security and Defence Policy.

“…With the ministers, talking about Ukraine, I reiterated the urgency to increase our military support to Ukraine and, in particular, the immediate needs of the Ukrainian army to defend [itself] from the Russian aggression, – Josep Borrell said. – This means air defence – we reviewed the work in progress of the training of the pilots for the F-16, winter equipment – because it is clear that the war will last during the winter, and ammunition.
“We are doing a lot, but everybody agreed that we have to do more and faster. This is something that I have repeated so many times: more and faster.

“Time is being measured not only in [the] destruction of infrastructure, houses, it is [also] being measured in losses of human lives. We have to understand that the support to Ukraine has to be conceived in the long term and it is part of our security commitments.
“We are working with the ministers on the framework of the security commitments that I have been tasked by the European Council to present in December. For that, we have to agree and coordinate bilateral actions with the European Union-level actions.
“My Deputy Secretary-General for [Common] Security [and Defence Policy, Charles Fries] will travel to Kyiv on the first days of December.

“The training mission (EUMAM Ukraine) goes very well. We are over the 30.000 soldiers already been trained. Good training means also saving lives.
“We will train 10.000 more in the upcoming period. I cannot give you a precise date but at the speed that we have been training the 30.000, these 10.000 more can go very quickly.
“On the issue of ammunition, implementation is ongoing. I can give you the figures of today but tomorrow [there] will be different ones, because it is a continuous flow”.