Ukraine has received the status of “Enhanced Partnership” with the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) – a coalition of ten Northern European states. The corresponding memorandum was signed by the defense ministers of the member states of the association. This is the first time that such a status has been granted to a state that is not part of the JEF. This was announced by the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal.
According to him, Ukraine participated for the first time in a meeting of defense ministers of the JEF member states, which he called a “historical moment”. Shmyhal thanked Norwegian Defense Minister Tore Sandvik and British Defense Minister John Healy for the invitation.
“Ukraine is capable of strengthening the JEF. We will share knowledge in the areas of countering hybrid aggression, the use of air defense forces, the use of drones, protecting national infrastructure and conducting long-range strikes”, – the minister stated.
He also reported that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will participate in joint exercises with JEF member countries to achieve full interoperability and readiness for joint actions in crisis situations. Ukraine expects that within the framework of cooperation with the JEF it will receive “access to European technologies and production facilities, on the basis of which it is possible to establish joint production” in the field of defense industry.
The Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) is a military-political coalition created by the United Kingdom in 2015. It includes the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway.
