Vice Minister of National Defence Žilvinas Tomkus attended a distance meeting of Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) Defence Ministers where Danish, Estonian, UK, Latvian, Lithuanian, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Icelandic Defence Ministers or their representatives once again reiterated the solidarity and cooperation in rendering assistance to Ukraine and ensuring security in the Baltic and the High North.
“We are leading a demining coalition for Ukraine with Iceland, we have 22 members in it, including seven JEF partners,” said Vice Minister thanking the JED countries for contributing to the demining coalition. According to Ž. Tomkus, the Ukrainian military were particularly short of demining equipment and encouraged JEF nations to donate it or contribute financially to the demining coalition fund. Lithuania has contributed 15 million euros to the fund which will be used to procure demining equipment for Ukraine.
Overviewing the JEF activities of 2023 Ministers praised the UK-led JEF decision to take active role in addressing damage done to the critical underwater infrastructure in the Baltic and North Sea and activate the JEF in response for the first time since its establishment. That demonstrated the JEF readiness and capabilities to deter potential adversaries from actions against critical infrastructure lines of the JEF nations. All the ten JEF partner nations committed national capabilities to respond in the Baltic, North and Norwegian Seas after the real-life events last October.
“The Joint Expeditionary Force is one of the first instruments of response to any crisis and their activation demonstrates the reliable participant of the European security it is that should be used when necessary in the future too,” said Ž. Tomkus.
The JEF is a high-readiness combat unit designed to respond to emergencies. The JEF is led by the United Kingdom and manned by 10 Norther European partner nations contributing maritime, land and air capabilities.
JEF ships