The foreign ministers meet in Luxembourg, but the defense ministers have also been invited to discuss the Russian war of aggression.
The foreign and defense ministers of the EU countries are meeting today in Luxembourg, where they are trying to find ways to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense, among other things.
Last week, Germany appealed to other EU and NATO countries, and at the summit, EU political leaders expressed the need to speed up support for Ukraine’s air defense.
Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg urged the countries of the alliance to choose support for Ukraine if necessary, even if it leads to shortcomings in meeting NATO requirements.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said after Stoltenberg’s comment that the exit will help a lot. The Netherlands is among the EU countries that still have the Patriot anti-aircraft systems wanted by Ukraine.
Rutte did not promise the Patriot system to Ukraine, but said that the Netherlands would look into the matter. However, the need for munitions and air defense is so great in Ukraine that various concrete announcements of help should be seen from different parts of Europe.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi has repeatedly requested additional assistance to Ukraine’s air defense.
Middle East and Sudan
In Luxembourg, the foreign ministers, without the defense ministers, also deal with the situations in the Middle East and Sudan.
The political leaders of the countries of the Union outlined their desire to see new sanctions on Iran after the strike against Israel.
On Friday, the diplomats did not expect the sanctions issue to be finalized at the foreign ministers’ meeting, but According to Politico The EU’s foreign affairs administration delivered information about the planned sanctions to the capitals over the weekend.
In addition, Finland and Italy have drawn up an unofficial document on, among other things, instrumented immigration and human smuggling, which was distributed to other EU countries last week.
Represents Finland at the meeting of foreign ministers Elina Valtonen (collect.). Minister of Defense Antti Häkkänen (co.) is known not to participate in the meeting.