The Contact Group, led by the US Secretary of Defence, has been meeting since April last year and regularly involves more than 40 countries. It provides an essential forum for Ukraine to express its support needs and serves as a reference point for donor countries to coordinate their contributions or launch joint assistance initiatives. An example is the important agreement reached last March by EU countries on the joint procurement of ammunition for Ukraine.
During Friday's meeting, Minister Robles confirmed Spain's continued support, reiterating the humanitarian and medical assistance measures that the Ministry of Defence continues to offer.
The Spanish Defence Minister also announced that new donations of material will be sent in the near future to cover the priority needs expressed by the Ukrainian Defence Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, during his visit to Madrid on 12 April.
These future shipments are aimed at reinforcing the Ukrainian Armed Forces in areas such as mobility, armour and protection of ground forces, anti-aircraft protection and defence, and maritime and amphibious protection and projection capabilities. The latter is seen as key to securing the Black Sea Grain Corridor, which allows the outflow of Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea, essential for supporting the UN World Food Programme and famine relief to the most famine-stricken countries in Africa and Asia.
The minister, who was accompanied by the Secretary General for Defence Policy, Admiral Juan Francisco Martínez Núñez, recalled that the important humanitarian, logistical and material support provided by Spain is in addition to the training of Ukrainian soldiers at the Toledo Training Coordination Centre, where the number of soldiers trained by the Spanish Armed Forces now stands at around 1,200, and the total number is expected to be at least 2,000 this year. He stressed that "beyond the increase in the number of personnel to be trained, the continuous expansion of specialised training areas must be emphasised".
At the end of the meeting, Minister Margarita Robles held a brief meeting with the US Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin, with whom she spoke by video conference last Friday.
Non official translation
The Minister for Defence, Margarita Robles, together with other members of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group