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EU Defence Ministers discussed further support to Ukraine, tabled joint ammunition procurement in Sweden

Ministry of Defence & Armed Forces of the Czech Republic

10.3.2023
Author: by MoD DPSD

On March 7-8th, Stockholm was the venue to an informal meeting of Defence Ministers of European Union Member States. The Czech Republic was represented by Minister of Defence Jana Černochová. The agenda comprised further assistance to Ukraine and the impact of the Russian aggression on global security. The Ministers also discussed options for collaborative procurement of ammunition for Ukraine. The working lunch was attended by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix and representatives of relevant Committees of the European Parliament. Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov attended the session in person.

The key discussion topic was further assistance to Ukraine. The Ministers welcomed the ambition to substantially increase the number of Ukrainian service personnel trained by EUMAM from the originally planned 15 thousand till 2024 up to 30 thousand already by the end of 2023. The successful training performance so far, which has also seen a significant input by the Czech Republic, has been largely instrumental to raising the objective.

Since the launching of EUMAM in mid-November, thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have been trained by now, and the Czech Republic is one of the major contributors. "The Czech Republic does maximum to help achieve the set ambitions. Besides all-arms and specialised training up to battalion level in our territory, our mobile instructor teams have already deployed in Poland. We remain committed to training as many as 4,000 Ukrainian soldiers by the end of this year," Minister Černochová commented on the effort.

The Ministers also discussed the support of the International Criminal Court on the investigation of Russian war crimes in Ukraine. The Czech Republic intends to join this support too, pending Parliamentary approval of the deployment of our Military Police specialists.

Further support including increased deliveries of ammunition

Equally important item on the agenda was the discussion on ramping up the production and accelerating lead times for deliveries of ammunition, including the options for common procurement of ammunition for Ukraine by EU Member States. That is another work strand to cater for urgent needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The support to joint procurements resounded already in the February EU Foreign Ministerial meeting, where Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský supported the proposal. "Ukraine defends itself thanks a huge morale of its citizens as well as thanks a strong material support by the West. Our support to Ukraine must intensify in order for the country both to defend itself and to regain all its occupied territories," Minister Černochová underscored. The European Peace Facility, which has turned out key from the outset of the war, is likely to be used as part of this initiative. In addition to the assistance to Ukraine, joint procurement may also help refill the depots of the Member States.

On the sidelines of the Ministerial, Minister Černochová also informally met with Minister Reznikov. She assured him of the Czech Republic's unwavering support to Ukraine. Minister Reznikov confirmed the Czech assistance is very important for Ukraine's fight and conveyed the expressions of gratitude by Ukrainian Government.

Impact of the Russian aggression

The topics of the Ministerial included the newly launched EU Military Partnership Mission in Niger, which is designed to help build military capacity of the Armed Forces of Niger to fight armed terrorist groups. Defence Ministers agreed that Sahel remains one of the key regions for European security. Thus, the EU shows it remains committed to actively engaging in the region, but has to draw lessons from previous unsuccessful endeavours, especially that in Mali.

Attended by senior representatives of NATO, UN and European Parliament, the discussion during the lunch centered on how to face the destabilising influence of Russia and China in other parts of the world. Particularly, the Western Balkans is a highly sensitive area. One of the informal international platforms that can help step up cooperation with the Western Balkan countries is the Central European Defence Cooperation (CEDC), the presidency of which is currently held by the Czech Republic.