New Pentagon chief expected at UK-led Ramstein meeting
Pravda Ukraine
Pete Hegseth, the newly appointed US Secretary of Defense, is expected to attend a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (also known as the Ramstein Group) on 12 February in Brussels, which will be chaired by the United Kingdom.
Source: Politico, as reported by European Pravda
Details: Hegseth, who is travelling to Europe next week, plans to attend a Ramstein meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, a US official and four other sources told Politico.
The sources also believe that the United States may return to chairing meetings of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in the future, as it did under the Joe Biden administration.
In addition, Politico sources say that no new US military aid packages will be announced at Ramstein.
Earlier, it was officially announced that UK Defence Secretary John Healey is convening the 26th Ramstein meeting. It will be held at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, 12 February, in the afternoon.
The group will meet on the eve of the NATO defence ministers’ meeting to discuss priorities for Ukraine and support to Ukraine in its fight against the full-scale Russian invasion.
The US-led Ramstein format was established in the spring of 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine to coordinate military assistance to Kyiv. It has brought together more than 50 countries.
On the eve of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, there were concerns that the new administration would not support the Ramstein format as much as the Joe Biden administration did. It was even feared that the format would cease to exist in its previous form.
The last meeting of the Ramstein format took place on 9 January. At the time, Ukraine’s Defence Minister Rustem Umierov said that the next meeting in the Ramstein format had already been agreed upon and was due to take place in February.
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