Defence Ministers Met in Brussels for Defence Ministerial and the Ukraine Contact Group
14.02.2025 / 12:54 | Aktualizováno: 28.02.2025 / 13:10
The first NATO Defence Ministers' meeting of the year took place in Brussels on 13 February 2025. With the participation of the new US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, the meeting was the first opportunity to learn about priorities and positions of the new US administration. The main topics of the meeting in the format of “32“ were strengthening NATO's defence and increasing defence spending, support for increasing defence industry capabilities, modernisation and adaptation of defence plans, and integrated air and missile defence.
The United States underlined their expectation that European states and Canada will urgently increase their defence spending up to 5% of GDP. The US also confirmed that NATO is growing in importance from its perspective and expects the Alliance to become stronger, more prepared and more robust. However, it is Europe in particular that must contribute to this. The US also highlighted the need to build military capabilities and to increase defence production capacity more rapidly, on both sides of the Atlantic. The need to significantly increase defence investment, capabilities, and strengthen industry was agreed by the vast majority of Allies. "Providing defence and building adequate armed forces will be challenging. In addition to strengthening our military, our second challenge is to support allied forces on the ground. We know that a mere 2% of GDP will not be enough for defence," emphasised Minister Černochová. The European Allies agreed that they should take greater responsibility for Europe's security.
Subsequently, a meeting was held in the NATO-Ukraine Council (NUC) format in the presence of the Ukrainian Minister of Defence R. Umerov and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy K. Kallas. Allies discussed the importance of continued support to Ukraine, which is key to ending Russia's military aggression against Ukraine. While 40 billion € in assistance to Ukraine was pledged at the NATO Summit in Washington in 2024, actual security assistance resulted in more than 50 billion €, with almost 60% of this coming from Europe and Canada. "In cooperation with partners, the Czech Republic delivered around 1.5 million pieces of artillery ammunition to Ukraine last year. Thanks to this, the Russian artillery superiority on the battlefield was almost completely eliminated by the end of the year," the Minister pointed out. "Our plan for 2025 is to continue this support so that Ukraine has the best possible negotiating position. After all, almost all allies agree on the need to continue to support Ukraine militarily."
The European allies also refused to give up Ukraine's claim to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and stressed the need to be present in negotiations with Russia on ending Russian aggression, especially if Europe is to bear the brunt of future security guarantees to Ukraine.
On the sidelines of the meeting, Minister of Defence signed a memorandum by which the Czech Republic joins the upcoming multinational project on passive sensors for airspace surveillance.
In addition, a meeting of Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) was held on 12 February 2025 under the auspices of the United Kingdom. The meeting focused on supporting Ukraine with military supplies and strengthening its defence industry. Many states announced new support packages. The United States presented the first steps and some parameters for future peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.