The defence ministers of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Poland met in Paris on Wednesday, promising concrete steps to boost European defence and provide security guarantees for Ukraine as Washington pursues rapprochement with Moscow.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov was invited to attend an initial meeting to discuss aid for his country, after which a second meeting would focus on building up European defence capabilities.
"European nations are stepping up," said Britain's defence secretary, John Healey.
"By deepening our defence cooperation, boosting spending and enhancing our collective strength, we send a clear message: we will not waver in standing with Ukraine and defending our shared values."
France and Britain, Europe's two nuclear powers, have worked closely together over the past few weeks to rally European support for Ukraine amid U.S. unpredictability.
The meetings, held at the Val-de-Grâce former military hospital in Paris, were also due to be attended by European Union and NATO officials.
The meetings come a day after 34 army chiefs, from NATO countries as well as Japan and Australia, met in Paris for rare talks that excluded their U.S. counterparts.
They focused on backing Ukraine and providing security guarantees for a future peace deal, including providing potential European peacekeepers.
U.S. President Donald Trump's moves to build closer ties with Russia and seek to rapidly end the Ukraine war have upended years of western defence thinking, prompting European nations to pledge Ukraine support and talk of rapid rearmament.
After Tuesday's meeting, French President Macron said the time had come to "move from concept to plan" to define credible security guarantees to ensure a solid and lasting peace in Ukraine, according to an Elysee source.
A press conference was scheduled following Wednesday's meetings at 18:30 CET.
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France’s “absolute priority” remains the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Thursday (5 February) during talks with his Syrian counterpart in Damascus, as Paris reassesses its counter-terrorism strategy.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk said the search at his social media platform X offices in Paris on Tuesday by French authorities was a "political attack".
French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that the U.S. is “gradually turning away” from some of its allies and “breaking free from international rules”.
The ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the broader geopolitical tensions surrounding territorial disputes and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant have drawn significant international attention.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has deployed one of its largest ballistic missiles at a newly unveiled underground base on Wednesday (3 February), just two days ahead of mediated nuclear talks with the United States in Muscat, Oman.
Rivers and reservoirs across Spain and Portugal were on the verge of overflowing on Wednesday as a new weather front pounded the Iberian peninsula, compounding damage from last week's Storm Kristin.
Morocco has evacuated more than 100,000 people from four provinces after heavy rainfall triggered flash floods across several northern regions, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.
Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes killed 24 Palestinians including seven children in Gaza on Wednesday (4 February), health officials said, the latest violence to undermine the nearly four-month-old ceasefire.
Azerbaijan and Armenia used a high-profile international platform in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday to underline growing trade ties, expanding cooperation and what both leaders described as an irreversible turn towards peace after decades of conflict.
A senior Russian military intelligence officer has been rushed to hospital after being shot several times in Moscow, in the latest apparent assassination attempt targeting the country’s top brass since the start of the war in Ukraine.
U.S. and Iranian delegations began Oman-mediated indirect talks on Friday (6 February) aimed at reviving diplomacy over Tehran’s nuclear programme, according to Iran’s state broadcaster, amid heightened regional tensions and warnings of possible military escalation.
A powerful explosion struck a Shi'ite mosque in the Tarlai Kalan area of Pakistan’s capital during Friday (6 February) prayers, killing at least 12 and injuring at least 100, according to local media. Preliminary reports indicate that a suicide bomber detonated explosives at the mosque’s main gate.
Eight vehicles caught fire on Friday (6 February) outside a wholesale fish market in Hong Kong, sending thick black smoke over parts of the Kowloon peninsula, before firefighters brought the blaze under control, authorities said.
The U.S. military said it has carried out a strike Thursday (5 February) on a vessel allegedly engaged in narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific, according to the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), killing two people.
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