\n\tMerz greeted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warmly outside the Chancellery in central Berlin ahead of the first official German-Ukrainian government consultations in years.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tMerz and Zelensky signed a defence cooperation agreement and a memorandum on industrial reconstruction and resilience during the meeting, which had been kept under wraps for security reasons.<\/p>\n
\n\tBilateral relations would be elevated to the level of a strategic partnership, Merz announced during a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t“What we are doing in this cooperation is not only beneficial for the defence of Ukraine. It is also of particular benefit to us, for our security,” Merz said.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe chancellor also reaffirmed Germany’s support for Ukraine’s future EU membership, while acknowledging that accession is unlikely in the short term.<\/p>\n
\n\tMerz said Germany is urging Ukraine to continue reforms, particularly in anti-corruption efforts and strengthening the rule of law.<\/p>\n
\n\tDefence sector cooperation strengthens Europe<\/p>\n
\n\tThe two sides signed agreements to expand cooperation in areas including air defence, long-range weapons, drones and artillery ammunition.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t“No army in Europe has been tested in combat over the past decades as much as Ukraine’s … No defence industry has become more innovative than Ukraine’s,” Merz said.<\/p>\n
\n\t“With our support, we are thereby strengthening both German and European defence capabilities and our industrial base,” Merz said.<\/p>\n
\n\tZelensky thanked Merz for his support and reiterated his desire for full bloc membership. He added that both the European Union and NATO also needed Ukraine as a “full-fledged partner”.<\/p>\n
\n\tHungary must quickly unblock \u20ac90 billion in EU aid for Ukraine<\/p>\n
\n\tFollowing the election defeat of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n, Merz called for the swift release of a \u20ac90 billion ($105 billion) EU loan for Ukraine, which had previously been blocked by Budapest.<\/p>\n
\n\t“The funds for military support must now be disbursed quickly,” Merz said, adding that Ukraine will then be able to fund its defence in the long term. “Russia should take this seriously.”<\/p>\n
\n\tZelensky said Ukraine could significantly expand weapons production if sufficient funding were made available.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t“The majority of the weapons Ukraine uses for various operations \u2013 from strikes against targets in the hinterland and fighting on the front line to air defence \u2013 are now manufactured in Ukraine,” Zelensky said.<\/p>\n
\n\tEU officials have expressed hope that Hungary will approve the funding following Orb\u00e1n’s defeat in Sunday’s elections, which ended his 16 years in power.<\/p>\n
\n\tElection winner P\u00e9ter Magyar has pledged to act as a “reliable partner” in the EU following his party’s overwhelming victory.<\/p>\n
\n\tGermany to fund hundreds of Patriot missiles for Ukraine<\/p>\n
\n\tOne of the agreements announced includes a German-financed contract between Ukraine and US defence contractor Raytheon for the delivery of several hundred Patriot missiles, the Defence Ministry in Berlin said after the consultations with Kiev ended.<\/p>\n
\n\tIt also said an agreement had been reached with German defence firm Diehl Defence to supply additional launchers for the Iris-T air defence system.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t“These projects will be funded by Germany and will significantly improve the protection of critical infrastructure and cities,” the ministry said.<\/p>\n
\n\tGermany and Ukraine also agreed to jointly develop medium- and long-range drones through a planned joint venture aimed at producing thousands of systems.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn addition, Berlin will support Ukraine in financing so-called deep-strike capabilities, referring to long-range precision weapons.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Defence Ministry said the investment would amount to several hundred million euros.<\/p>\n
\n\tMerz: European role essential in Ukraine peace talks<\/p>\n
\n\tMerz reiterated that Germany and Europe must be included in any peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia, saying no deal can be reached without European involvement.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t“I remain firmly convinced that there will be no agreements with Russia made over the heads of the Europeans,” Merz said.<\/p>\n
\n\tZelensky, according to an official translation, said Ukraine has consistently maintained that Europe must be involved in any peace process but accused Russia of continuing to seek reasons to prolong the war.<\/p>\n
\n\tUS-mediated negotiations between Ukraine and Russia have stalled for months as the war which Moscow launched more than four years ago rages on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Merz greeted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warmly outside the Chancellery in central Berlin ahead of the first official…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[124],"tags":[7155,5455,3223,18642,233,249,371,4820,7158,7156,1345,7154,7157,330,3221,52],"class_list":["post-27340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-friedrich-merz","tag-agartala-news","tag-berlin","tag-defence","tag-forges","tag-friedrich-merz","tag-germany","tag-global-news","tag-international-politics","tag-manipur-news","tag-northeast-india-news","tag-ties","tag-tripura-news","tag-tripura-politics","tag-ukraine","tag-with","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116405816711205867","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}