“Politico: The new Pentagon Head will take part in the future meeting of Ramstein, Pete Hegset will take part in the Ramstein meeting on February 12 at NATO headquarters. The UK will be held for the first time instead of the United States, and further format management remains questionable.”, – WRITE ON: Unn.ua
Details
One of the US Defense Ministry officials and four informed sources said that the Hegset, who goes to Europe next week, plans to attend a Ukrainian meeting at NATO headquarters.
For the first time the meeting of the Allies of Ukraine in the format of the contact group will be held by the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom Defense Minister John Gili will head the meeting on Wednesday, temporarily overcome this role from the United States, the British Defense Ministry reported.
This meeting will be preceded by NATO Defense Ministers Summit, but Ramstein format is much wider-it includes more than 50 partner countries. The contact group was established in April 2022 as a platform for coordinating Kiev – from training fighter pilots to cybersecurity.
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Despite the change of leadership in the Pentagon, the continued participation of the United States in Ramstin remains questionable.
The Donald Trump administration has not committed itself to the continuation of Ukraine’s military support, and no new obligations from Washington are expected at the next meeting.
Addition
The previous one, the 25th Ramstein meeting was conducted by US excellence Lloyd Austin-this happened a few days before Trump’s return to the White House. There are already noticeable signs of changes in Washington’s policy on Kiev: last week, the supply of American equipment from Poland to Ukraine was suspended for one day.
At the same time, the Allies retain unity in the further support of Ukraine.
The Contact Group will be preserved before the NATO Defense Ministers meeting to discuss priorities for Ukraine, as the international community continues to work together to support Kiev in the fight against Putin’s illegal invasion,
The US Department of Defense has not yet commented on the situation.
The Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair noted that the Ramstein format has greatly strengthened NATO due to American leadership and the creation of “capacity coalitions”. According to him, the United Kingdom temporarily moves this role, but in the future leadership will remain.
However, Britain’s long -term leadership in Ramstin is still in question – negotiations on permanent group leadership are ongoing.
The British perfectly coordinate such processes. But now the level of trust in the US is quite low – we are too unpredictable,
At the same time, he noted that without Washington it would be difficult to fill the gap in the military support of Ukraine.
Recall
The next Ramstein meeting will take place on February 12 under the leadership of the United Kingdom instead of the United States.