The defense ministers of the European Union (EU) meet this Tuesday and Wednesday in the Spanish city of Toledo to discuss support for Ukraine and analyze the coup in Niger.
The Minister of National Defense, Helena Carreiras, will participate in the meeting with the leaders of the 26 remaining Member States and the main topic will be the same as a year and a half ago: the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
After eleven packages of sanctions against Russia and its partners and ‘disbursing’ support to the invaded country seven times through the European Peace Support Facility (MEAP), the EU seeks to know how it can go further in support, in a moment in which Ukraine is carrying out a counteroffensive, which despite being effective, is advancing slowly, as a result of the defenses that Russian troops have set up and that make it difficult to advance on the ground.
Portugal has a very specific request, formulated a little over a week ago by the Ukrainian Defense Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, and reiterated that same week by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky: help from the Portuguese Navy to clear mines in the Black Sea.
At the same time, the Ministers should address the coup in Niger on July 26, which worsened the situation in that region of the African continent.
Niger has been experiencing a political crisis since a military junta – calling itself the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Fatherland (CNSP), headed by the former head of the Presidential Guard, General Abdourahamane Tiani – deposed the elected president Mohamed Bazoum (who is in prison since then) and suspended the Constitution.
The coup was condemned by the international community and by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which decreed harsh economic and trade sanctions against Niger (a member of the bloc before its suspension) and threatened military action against the coup leaders. to restore constitutional order.
Source: TSF
