A historic summit of more than 40 countries on Ukraine’s long-term security needs started at the Rammstein base

A “historic” summit of the International Defense Advisory Group convened by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has begun in Germany.

Militarnyi informs about this with reference to Interfax-Ukraine.

The summit, which is taking place on Tuesday in Rammstein (Germany) at the US airbase, is attended by the Heads of the defense agencies of more than 40 countries. This was announced by Lloyd Austin, who is chairing the meeting, in his opening remarks. The meeting is also attended by Oleksii Reznikov, Minister of Defense of Ukraine.

The flags of the USA and Ukraine are set behind the chairman.

“I am honored to be here with you all. Thank you all for gathering so quickly for this historic summit of the Defense Advisory Group of Ukraine. This is an extraordinary gathering with over forty countries represented here today. We are here to help Ukraine win the fight against Russia’s unjustified invasion and to build up Ukraine’s defenses for tomorrow’s challenges,” Austin said.

He reminded the audience that he came here after traveling to Kyiv with Secretary of State Blinken and that during the visit he had a “productive discussion with President Zelensky and his team about the support that we provided, the capabilities that Ukraine needs, as well as the needs that are changing due to the change of the situation in Donbas and in the south.”

“That visit had only underscored my sense of urgency, the urgency that we all share. I would like this entire group today to leave with a common and transparent understanding of Ukraine’s medium-term security needs since we are going to keep moving and do everything we can to meet them. The existing coordination mechanism can become even stronger with all your help, and we can do even more through our defense industry foundations to continue and help Ukraine defend itself even more efficiently, ” shared the Secretary of State.