German and British defence ministers convened in Berlin on Thursday for their inaugural ministerial council following the signing of a military cooperation agreement last year.
“Today’s meeting shows that we not only agree on important projects, which would only be half the battle, but also that we implement them together and quite quickly,” said German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius.
The meeting occurred amid a turbulent diplomatic environment, with NATO foreign ministers convening in Turkey to discuss a US initiative aimed at substantially increasing defence investments, as the United States shifts its attention to security issues beyond Europe.
Concurrently, Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a proposal from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a direct meeting in Turkey, however, representatives from both nations are set to engage in their first direct discussions in several years.
UK Defence Minister John Healey noted that Putin’s decision to forgo the meeting with Zelenskyy in Istanbul was significant.
“This is a day which exposes Putin for what he is. He says he wants peace but he rejected a full ceasefire. He says he wants to end fighting, but he continues to strike and kill Ukrainian civilians and cities. And he says he wants to talk but he doesn’t even turn up to the very conference that he called for in Istanbul today.”
Meanwhile, Chairman of the European Union Military Committee, Robert Brieger, announced that the bloc is planning to double heavy calibre ammunition deliveries to Ukraine this year.
The comments came after a meeting between EU defence chiefs was held on Thursday in Brussels.
“The goal is to deliver a 2 million rounds of heavy calibre ammunition to your country during the current year. So it’s about doubling the amount of the last year,” said Brieger.
Brieger said the EU is incentivising member states to produce more ammunition to achieve that goal.
“We try to set incentives for member states to procure more, to produce even more, using the contracts laid out by the EDA [European Defence Agency],” he said.
“But also raising new initiatives, be it financial or be it via intensifying the cooperation with the Ukraine defence industry,” added Brieger.
Brieger also spoke on the potential resources needed to tackle the maritime threat posed by the Kremlin’s shadow fleet. The EU military chief noted that the bloc would have to boost its available ships to effectively secure its waters and protect against any threat.
“When I look at the existing maritime operations and we have three of them, in the northwest Indian Ocean, two, and one in the Mediterranean, then we are frankly spoken lacking in resources,” said Brieger addressing reporters after the meeting.
ADVEReadNOWISEMENT“So when such a mission would be launched, it would be crucial that through a respective force sensing and diligent planning, we can secure in advance that we have enough ships, enough airplanes, and enough resources to carry out such a mission, should it be credible.”
Additional sources • AP, EBU