{"id":20915,"date":"2024-01-25T08:15:26","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T06:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/?p=20915"},"modified":"2024-01-25T08:15:37","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T06:15:37","slug":"pentagon-chief-hosts-18th-ukraine-defense-contact-group-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/pentagon-chief-hosts-18th-ukraine-defense-contact-group-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon Chief hosts 18th Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin hosted a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on January 23, 2024. The meeting detailed the formation of two new coalitions of European nations, one focusing on drones while the other one on armor.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The U.S. did not announce any new military aid package for Kyiv during the first Ukraine Contact Group meeting for 2024. While several European defense ministers traveled to Brussels the NATO headquarters to participate in the meeting, the U.S. Defense Secretary Austin conducted the meeting in a virtual format as he had not been able to travel due to health-related problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During his opening remarks, Austin said \u201cUkraine&#8217;s fight is important for all of our countries.\u201d He mentioned that the United States announced an additional $250 million package&nbsp;for Ukraine in December 2023. \u201cThe package includes lifesaving air-defense munitions, air-defense system components, ammunition for HIMARS, anti-armor munitions, 155-millimeter and 105-millimeter artillery ammunition, and medical equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also participated in the meeting and welcomed the Allies\u2019 commitments to continue supporting Ukraine. According to a NATO press release, Stoltenberg stressed that Russia\u2019s massive strikes highlight the urgent need to strengthen Ukraine\u2019s air defenses. Through the US-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stoltenberg said that the Allies have already delivered a wide range of air defense systems to Ukraine, including Patriots, IRIS-T, and NASAMS. In addition, under NATO\u2019s Comprehensive Assistance Package (CAP). He committed that the Alliance would be supplying more winter equipment, demining equipment, and fuel to help Ukraine weather the difficult winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">At a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, NATO Secretary General <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jensstoltenberg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@jensstoltenberg<\/a> welcomed Allies\u2019 commitments to continue supporting Ukraine now and for the long term <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/StandWithUkraine?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#StandWithUkraine<\/a> \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6<\/p>&mdash; NATO (@NATO) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NATO\/status\/1749864005030572311?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 23, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>Stoltenberg also outlined&nbsp;NATO\u2019s support to ramp up ammunition production, including the recent purchase of up to 1,000 Patriot interceptor missiles through the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA). He announced that NATO has concluded contracts for the purchase of around 220,000 155-millimeter artillery shells worth $1.2 billion. This will replenish the Allies\u2019 stocks, as they continue to bolster Ukraine\u2019s air defenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stoltenberg stressed that NATO is committed to providing long-term support to Ukraine. Allies agreed in Vilnius to expand NATO\u2019s CAP to a multi-year support program to cover critical short-term needs and build long-term interoperability to help protect Ukraine\u2019s people, critical infrastructure, and military forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><strong>Two new coalitions formed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a briefing to reporters at the meeting, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander announced that Germany and Latvia will lead the newly formed armor and drone capability coalitions collectively. The Pentagon later clarified it was Poland, not Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Support-Cargo.jpeg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Support-Cargo.jpeg?resize=800%2C480&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Ukraine support package\" class=\"wp-image-10831\" style=\"width:840px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Support-Cargo.jpeg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Support-Cargo.jpeg?resize=300%2C180&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Support-Cargo.jpeg?resize=768%2C461&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em><sup>Pallets containing ammunition, explosives, and other supplies bound for Ukraine are loaded onboard an aircraft during a foreign military sales mission at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, March 20, 2022. (Image Credit: U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Marco A. Gomez)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Wallander didn\u2019t supply in-depth information about all the new coalitions\u2019 impending pursuits, during her briefing with reporters, but she did mention that the drone-focused team will be looking at multi-domain and multifunctional aspects in which uncrewed aerial vehicles play an evolving role on the battlefield.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin hosted a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on January 23, 2024. The meeting detailed the formation of two new coalitions of European nations, one focusing on drones while the other one on armor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[62,1,125],"tags":[75,6,357,528,5,59,113,7,22],"class_list":["post-20915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-news","category-united-states","tag-conflict","tag-defense","tag-europe","tag-himars","tag-military","tag-nato","tag-security","tag-u-s","tag-ukraine"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/US-Defense-Secretary-Austin-with-Ukraine-President-Zelenskyy.jpg?fit=690%2C370&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-5rl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20924,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20915\/revisions\/20924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}