Supporting Ukraine at all costs, while strengthening the eastern flank of the Atlantic Alliance and accelerating the monitoring of essential infrastructure, is essentially the program of the ordinary NATO ministerial meeting which was to start on Wednesday 12 October. evening in Brussels. “NATO is not a party to the conflictimmediately recalled Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of the military organization, Tuesday, during a press briefing. But our support plays an important role. And the allies remain united in their support for the sovereignty and defense of Ukraine. » Moreover, the Ukrainian Minister of Defense participates in the exchanges of the contact group with Ukraine, responsible for finding the armaments to be transferred to the country, as well as in the dinner of the ministers of the thirty NATO allies.
After the massive bombardments of October 10 and 11, the United Kingdom however requested the meeting of a summit of the heads of state members of the military alliance. “We have already conducted three this year. We will organize another when necessary., was content to declare the Secretary General. In the meantime, the former Norwegian Prime Minister recalled that the ministerial meeting “may send a clear message” the unity and determination of the allies in the face of Russia.
Strengthen border countries
During this meeting, “we will review our progress in strengthening NATO deterrence and defence”, said Mr. Stoltenberg. The stakes remain high in the midst of the war in Ukraine. At the Madrid summit at the end of June, the alliance adopted a new strategic defense concept and a new ambition: to create a new force of 300,000 men by 2023, ready for rapid deployment. and supplemented by European armies. This force will be prepositioned, with a large part of its armaments, in certain countries, according to NATO defense plans.
“We are now implementing the new strategy”, slips a NATO source. And the priority since the beginning of the war of invasion of Russia in Ukraine is to strengthen the defense of the countries bordering Russia. Already, eight battalions are positioned, from Estonia, in the north, to Romania, in the south. “The whole challenge now is to advance these battalions of around 1,200 men from the various armies of the alliance, in groups of around 3,000 men, closer to the level of a brigade”says one at NATO HQ.
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