Peacekeeping mission in Ukraine: 15 countries are "interested"
Defense ministers from Germany, France, Britain, Italy, and Poland discuss European rearmament at a meeting in Paris.
ParisWhile negotiating the first ceasefire in Ukraine After three years of war, the five major European military powers—Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Poland—met in Paris on Wednesday. The day after the French President's meeting with around thirty Chiefs of Defense Staff, the defense ministers of the five countries met at the Val-de-Grâce Abbey to discuss aid to Ukraine and coordinate European support for Kiev. "Peace in Ukraine and the defense of Europe are the most pressing needs of our time," the ministers stated in a joint declaration.
Defense ministers have been following the latest news on the peace talks throughout the afternoon. "The ball is in Vladimir Putin's court," the ministers agreed. "It's Putin's turn. To him I say: 'accept the ceasefire and end the war,'" said British Secretary of State for Defense John Healey. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Serhii Boyev also participated in the meeting via videoconference.
The ministers of the five European military powers discussed The Franco-British proposal to send European troops to Ukraine once there is a ceasefireThe peacekeeping mission will serve to verify that Russia is complying with the agreements. Although some member states, such as Spain, consider discussing this proposal "premature," diplomatic negotiations for a ceasefire have intensified in recent hours. France called on Tuesday to expedite the implementation of the proposal. The Kremlin, on the other hand, doesn't want to hear about it.
Participants in the mission
According to French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu, "there are about fifteen countries that would be interested in continuing this process." That is, exploring the possibility of participating in the peacekeeping mission. However, Lecornu declined to specify which countries those countries would be. The French minister emphasized that the European troops deployed on the ground will not replace Ukrainian soldiers. "We will not ask European troops to do the work of the Ukrainian navy," Lecornu asserted.
According to France, the priority is to strengthen Ukraine's military capabilities and not "demilitarize" it. The European mission "is part of security guarantees" and has not yet been finalized or defined. The defense ministers of all countries interested in participating in the mission will meet in two weeks to advance its design, according to the French minister.
Reshaping Security
Faced with the distancing from Europe marked by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, the countries of the Old Continent are preparing to rethink their security. Until now, the countries of the European Union felt protected under the umbrella of NATO and, therefore, were certain that the United States would defend them from any external aggression. With Trump in the White House, that certainty has faded. However, the five European military powers are asking Trump not to turn his back on Ukraine. "We ask that the United States continue to support Ukraine," states the statement released by the ministers at the end of the meeting.
The European response to the new geopolitical situation—unprecedented since World War II—involves rearmament of countries to achieve European sovereignty in matters of security and defense, with the aim of ceasing to depend on Washington. The community partners are committed to increasing military spending to address the new situation and Brussels has launched an €800 billion plan to facilitate rearmament.
By relaxing fiscal rules to allow members to borrow more, by providing guarantees for loans to member states, and by diverting European funds to defense, EU countries will have the tools to spend more money on defense. Even Germany, a longtime defender of fiscal discipline, plans to amend its constitution to increase military spending.