The five European military powers meet in Paris to coordinate aid in Ukraine.
The defense ministers of Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Poland discuss European rearmament.
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—are meeting in Paris this Wednesday. The day after the French president's meeting with around thirty Chiefs of Defense Staff, the defense ministers of the five countries will meet at the Val-de-Grâce Abbey to discuss aid in Ukraine and coordinate European support for Kiev. The ministers will also discuss rearmament, "which is essential to guarantee the collective and long-term security" of European territory.
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 vanished.
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. 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 partners to borrow more, guaranteeing loans to member states, and diverting European funds to defense, EU countries will have the tools to spend more money in this area.
Peacekeeping mission
The ministers of the five European military powers will also analyze 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, have said that discussing this proposal is "premature," diplomatic negotiations for a ceasefire have intensified in recent hours. France called on Tuesday for speeding up the implementation of the proposal. The Kremlin, on the other hand, doesn't want to hear about it.
