NewsFeed n°41
The NewsFeed is a press review with a summary of a selection of articles and events that occurred in the past 2 weeks. Keep track!
In our last NewsFeed we informed about the different the positions, candidates for the french presidency haIn our brief of the last weeks, you will find the new EU sanctions against Russia, the decision of Germany to weaponise their drones, annual reports from MBDA, NATO and the EDA, and much more!
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Focus: New set of EU sanctions against Russia
The EU has widened its list of sanctions against Russia. It is the fifth time since the 24th of
February, the beginning of Russia’s ruthless war against Ukraine. Since the uncovering of the
Russian war-crime-massacre on Ukrainian civilians in the village Bucha, North-West of Kyiv, the
question asked by Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the European Council becomes more and more
weighty: “How much longer can the Europe ignore the introduction of an embargo against oil
supplies from Russia?” Now the European Council has partially reacted and established a coal
embargo against Russia. This package also includes a ban of transaction with 4 more Russian
banks (the Central Bank of Russia is already under ban since the 11th of march) and the
prohibition of access for Russian ships to EU ports. However, a first essay on an embargo on
Russian oil on EU level has failed on the 11th of April. Still, a complete closure of plans for an oil
embargo plan is not happening for the moment: There will probably be further negotiations on
how to conduct an oil-embargo on EU level.
Other ambitions to end the war in favour of Ukraine take place on the national level in the form
of individual sanctions and weapon deliveries. The Czech Republic for instance delivered a part
of their T-72 MBT and BMP-1 IFV reserve to Ukraine and Slovakia has sent over their S-300 air
defence missile system. All three platforms are old Soviet/Russian tech, that the Ukrainian army
is already familiar with and needs no training with. There lies the advantage, whereas
Germany’s proposition to ship some of their Marder IFVs or Leopard-1 MBTs over, would require a
significant amount of troop training before use in combat. Further stating: Western combat
vehicles in use by the Ukrainian army will, if delivered, not see action up to mid-late summer. In
order to enable an immediate use, Ukraine specifically asked for material its army is already
familiar with. This should help the country to prepare for the probable large scale Russian
offensive that is imminent in the East of the country.
On the The EU has widened its list of sanctions against Russia. It is the fifth time since the 24th of
February, the beginning of Russia’s ruthless war against Ukraine. Since the uncovering of the
Russian war-crime-massacre on Ukrainian civilians in the village Bucha, North-West of Kyiv, the
question asked by Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the European Council becomes more and more
weighty: “How much longer can the Europe ignore the introduction of an embargo against oil
supplies from Russia?” Now the European Council has partially reacted and established a coal
embargo against Russia. This package also includes a ban of transaction with 4 more Russian
banks (the Central Bank of Russia is already under ban since the 11th of march) and the
prohibition of access for Russian ships to EU ports. However, a first essay on an embargo on
Russian oil on EU level has failed on the 11th of April. Still, a complete closure of plans for an oil
embargo plan is not happening for the moment: There will probably be further negotiations on
how to conduct an oil-embargo on EU level.
Other ambitions to end the war in favour of Ukraine take place on the national level in the form
of individual sanctions and weapon deliveries. The Czech Republic for instance delivered a part
of their T-72 MBT and BMP-1 IFV reserve to Ukraine and Slovakia has sent over their S-300 air
defence missile system. All three platforms are old Soviet/Russian tech, that the Ukrainian army
is already familiar with and needs no training with. There lies the advantage, whereas
Germany’s proposition to ship some of their Marder IFVs or Leopard-1 MBTs over, would require a
significant amount of troop training before use in combat. Further stating: Western combat
vehicles in use by the Ukrainian army will, if delivered, not see action up to mid-late summer. In
order to enable an immediate use, Ukraine specifically asked for material its army is already
familiar with. This should help the country to prepare for the probable large scale Russian
offensive that is imminent in the East of the country.
On the contrary to other countries supporting Ukraine in the war with Russia, Germany has
decided to reveal neither quality nor quantity of the arms shipped to Ukraine. First a measure to
ensure a safe passage and transport of the weapons into Ukraine, a second argument has
appeared: In the German parliament, the Bundestag, Ms Lambrecht, the German Defence
Minister, claimed that the Ukrainian government itself had asked for secrecy in order to keep
Russia in the dark about what their troops might encounter in combat against the Ukrainian army. She however was contradicted by the Ukrainian ambassador in Germany.
Original articles: 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 🇫🇷 🇩🇪
Industry
Germany decides to weaponize their Heron TP drones
The debate for armed drones in Germany has been going on for a decade now and it looks like it might finally be concluded.
The German drone debate can be traced back to 2012. At that time Germany was using unarmed reconnaissance drones in Afghanistan and asked for an up armament of some of those models. The argument: If the Bundeswehr is already overseeing their troops on the ground with drones, it would be helpful (in terms of saving lives) to be able to protect those in case of a firefight. Therefore, some drones should be armed and be able to apply direct air support to the troops they are surveilling.
This demand initiated a long discussion that lasted for ten years and outlived three different governments. Now the current coalition consisting of the socio-democrats, the greens and the liberal-democrats, has decided that the Bundeswehr will receive the permission to up arm their Israeli manufactured Heron TP (also known as Eitan) drones. For future usage, the German government has established a number of conditions in which armed drones can be used. The guiding principle is the direct protection of German troops on the ground.
The European Defence Agency publishes its annual report
On March 25th, the European Defence Agency (EDA) published its annual report, which looks back on the year 2021 for the agency.
It first salutes the fact that the tense security situation, from cyber-attacks to the Ukraine war, has placed security and defence at the centre of the European debate, where the EDA studies and tools can take their whole place.
Concerning the innovation and technologies topic, it underlines that the EU Foreign Affairs Ministers called for strengthening the EDA’s role. It resulted in the decision to set up a Hub for European Defence Innovation that would serve as a network for all existing national innovation centres and push forward the EU development priorities, the CARD recommendations, etc.
Concerning the main mission of the European Defence Agency, to support Member States in enhancing their defence capabilities, it manages currently 137 joint capabilities and defence projects, with a €420 million contribution from Member States, and supports 4 of the PESCO projects.
In addition, the main step forward with third-party countries was the start of negotiations with the US Department of Defence to conclude an Administrative Arrangement, which would allow them to take part in EDA projects and programmes.
Original articles: 🇬🇧
In its annual conference, MBDA analyses the impact of the war in Ukraine
If the pandemic has had little impact on MBDA, 2022 could mark a turning point in the group’s history. The European leader in missile design and production presented record financial results for 2021 on April 6th in Paris, with a turnover of 4.2 billion euros (up 13% compared to 2019) for a net result of 344 million. More than its financial prospects, the possible consequences of the war in Ukraine have occupied the main part of the thoughts of MBDA’s CEO, Eric Béranger.
Faced with an increasingly strained geopolitical context coupled with a vital need for States to rethink their defensive capabilities, MBDA seems to play its cards right and, as a result, makes the most of it on the commercial level. And this to such an extent that its order backlog in total has reached 17.8 billion euros. Alongside air or naval weapon packages with Greece, Canada, Egypt, Brazil, Indonesia and the UAE, it notably includes major European contracts signed: the Ground to Air defence system SAMP/T NG for France and Italy, the mid-life refresh of Aster missiles (Anti-Air missiles) for the UK and Italy, the FCAS/W assessment phase (new generation of cruise and anti-ship missiles) for the UK and France, the MICA NG (Air to Air missile) for France and the Mistral 3 (very short-range ground-to-air missile) for Spain.
Willing to pursue its role as a “tool for sovereignty” according to Eric Béranger, MBDA places itself as an indispensable player in the future defense area. In the long term, MBDA aims to support nations’ sovereignty and peaceful prosperity by delivering essential military capabilities, making it one that will not be able to overlook. Eric Béranger also delivered his lessons-learned from the conflict in Ukraine. He stated that, face with a long-lasting conflict, “it is not about either high-technology or mass, it’s high-technology AND mass.” He added that “it is not good news, because it means we need to cover a wider range”. This brought him to question the way the increase of the national defence budgets would be spent and where.
European Union military cooperation and external operations
Suspension of EUTM Mali
On the 11th of April Josep Borrell, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, announced a standstill for training exercises for the Malian military by European troops. Multiple reasons led up to this decision:
- The Malian military has most likely violated Human Rights in a military operation it carried out near the end of march. European forces cannot afford to train soldiers who murder civilians and commit war crimes. It is not compatible with the principles of their deployment.
- It is unclear if there were Russian troops or mercenaries involved in the war crime. If so, any profit a Russo-Malian cooperation might seize by the hands of European soldiers, cannot be allowed.
- The Malian government, by itself, did not bring up sufficient guarantees to assure that there were no Russian troops involved in their military operation. Therefore, the EU assumes that the will for military cooperation no longer exists from the Malian side.
In the past months the cooperation between western and Malian forces has become increasingly difficult, even leading up to the point where landing permissions for western transport planes were denied on Malian soil. This raises the question whether European forces in general would still be allowed to carry out emergency actions (like medivacs for example) on a reliable basis.
In the context with the war in Ukraine, the close collaboration with Russia becomes just another reason to pull back from a cooperation with the Malian government and gives a certain urgency to the topic.
After the end of the French operation Barkhane last summer and the current development in international politics, it is well possible that the EUTM mission in Mali will not be reinitiated and has now come to a silent end.
International Relation
Main outputs of the EU-China summit
The 23rd EU-China summit has been organised on April 1st. As Josep Borrell described it in his following speech in front of the European Parliament, it was more a “dialog of the deaf” than a real dialog.
Indeed, the first and main topic addressed was Ukraine, and China refused to take any concrete actions or condemn any Russian behaviour. The European Union detailed the plain facts in their possession and pressed China to be part of the solution to end the war, by a ceasefire and humanitarian corridors. It was also underlined that the EU position on the conflict was not a “blind following of the United States” but a conviction. However, despite wishing for peace, China avoided any commitments or blame on Russia.
Josep Borrell also indicated that China recognised that the EU and them had their own and different interpretations of Human Rights. Despite that, they agreed on the need to relaunch the EU-China Human Rights dialog.
China was reluctant to address any of those topics, and wanted to “focus on the positives”, but “compartmentalisation” was not an option for the EU. “Principled diplomacy, based on EU unity and strength, remains the best way to shape China’s choices”, affirmed Josep Borrell.
Other issues like Myanmar, Afghanistan and Iran were discussed and China was pressed to take a constructive role, as they already do for the Iran nuclear deal. It was also requested that China lift their sanctions against EU officials and their trade measures against Lithuania, a condition for the moving ahead of the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment ratification. Trade and investment was considered a major topic by China
NATO publishes its annual report
Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO Secretary General, presented the Alliance’s annual report for 2021 on March 31st, in the security context of the war in Ukraine.
On that matter, he pointed out the efforts of the alliance to prevent the Russian aggression, by sharing intelligence publicly, keeping the dialogue as long as possible, “preparing for the worst and working for the best”. He also indicated that the long-standing assistance of Ukraine by NATO, by training thousands of their troops, providing equipment and supporting reforms, helped them prepare for their resistance to Russia.
For NATO itself, he underlined that the reinforcement of the defence plans in recent years had allowed it to activate them and quickly redeploy thousands of troops to the Eastern part of Europe. This was supported by one of the two new NATO headquarters that opened in 2021: the Joint Support and Enabling Command in Ulm, Germany, managing the movement of troops and equipment into and across Europe.
Other missions were also deployed or maintained: in Kosovo, Iraq, in all dimensions, or in Afghanistan, with the withdrawal of the Resolute Support mission. Stressing the magnitude of the airlift set up to evacuate 12.000 people and 2.000 Afghans, he stated that the lessons learned would help shape NATO’s future reaction to crises, eluding the critics on the one-sided withdrawal of the US and the low level of preparation of the operation.
Concerning the defence spending, he saluted that they rose for the 7th year in a row, amounting to a total raise of 3.1%.
The next major appointment for the Allies is the Madrid summit in June, focusing on the NATO 2030 next steps and NATO Strategic Concept, guidelines for the next decade. Allies will also have to submit plans to meet the Defence Investment Pledge.
Original articles: 🇬🇧
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