Foreign Affairs Council (Defence): Press remarks by High Representative Kaja Kallas upon arrival

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Good morning everybody,

Good to see you again. So today, we have a full day ahead with the defence topics and Ministers of Defence meeting and the Defence Council. 
So first we have the EDA, the European Defence Agency Board. There we are focusing on innovation and joint projects. Because one thing that we have seen, we have too many projects in different Member States that are not interoperable. We really need to push Member States for more joint procurement, but also innovation, because we have a lot to learn from Ukraine. The defence industry should also take this up and how the States, by their procurement, can actually also enhance that.

Then we have the discussions of Ukraine. We have the Defence Minister of Ukraine joining us. Of course, there the question how we can use the €90 billion loan and how does that all proceed, so that it would answer to the urgent needs of Ukraine.

And then, we have the discussion of the defence industry, also together with the industry, actually, because we see the problem that the defence ministers are pushing. Their countries have a lot of funding on the table but the defence industry is not ramping up their production, speeding up it. So, we need to see what is the problem so we bring them together.

And then, of course, we will discuss the Middle East, specifically with the defence ministers’ two topics. One is Lebanon, as we know UNIFIL is ending by this year. There is a willingness of the Europeans to put together another mission to help the Lebanese Armed Forces. Of course we are already helping them, but whether there is appetite for a whole new European mission to come in instead of UNIFIL.

And the other topic is of course the Strait of Hormuz and the naval Operation Aspides. We have it already. We only need to change the operational plan of that mandate so we can actually proceed with that quite well if the Member States strengthen it, give more ships to it, and it has all the structures already in place. 

So, ready to take your questions. 

Q&A

Q. [Inaudible – Article 42.7]

We are not discussing that concretely now. We have some reflections on the exercises that the PSC Ambassadors have, but we do not have it on the agenda right now.

Q. How dangerous is it, that the US announced maybe not to place Tomahawks in Europe?

Well, it clearly gives us a sign that we really, really need to speed up the defence production ourselves and really to do joint procurement to be able to produce for ourselves the defence capabilities that we need.

Q. The Strait of Hormuz is always closed. What is the biggest challenge for you and for the European Union? 

Well, the biggest challenge is how we can actually push the diplomatic track. We are in constant contact with the parties and also the regional actors that are pushing for the first phase of these peace talks. That would be really ending the war, also all the attacks by proxies. Also, the second thing is opening the Strait of Hormuz and then using the time for negotiating all the difficult topics that are still on the table.

Q. You talked yesterday [inaudible] that the time is now, to become engaged [inaudible]. 

Yes, we have had talks with the Gulf countries mostly, that when this war ends it is clear that the region is not the same. So, the discussions about the security architecture, how to have peaceful, stable region that is in everybody's interest, how to achieve that. And there also the Gulf countries have said to us that they clearly see Europe's role there. Because it is our neighbourhood, we have been in close contact. We are working together also more on security and defence issues. If you just look also what kind of help Ukraine has given to the Gulf countries, but in the long term, there is definitely a role for us.

Q. One more question on 42.7, can you tell us about these simulations that were run? Because my own Austrian PSC Ambassador did not want to tell us, what was actually done. 

Well, basically the paper that we have written on operationalising the 42.7 has like three different scenarios. One is a scenario where there is an attack on a NATO country, so Article 5 and Article 42.7 are triggered in parallel. Then, the other is when there is a country that is not part of the NATO, which is 42.7 only, and then the third is when it is under the threshold of the Article 5, so that it is hybrid attack. Of course, we are not publicly saying about these exercises, because these exercises actually show the gaps that we have. And that was the point of this exercise: where we need to be more concrete, who does what, who asks, who can ask what from the Commission, what the Commission can do, what the External Action Service can do and what the Member States can do. So, it is complicated, as the Article is very wide and vague. We really need to put more meat to the bones.

Link to video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/media/video/I-289364