Iceland Joins Two Coalitions in Support of Ukraine
Iceland has announced that it has joined the IT and demining coalitions formed within the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, also known as the Ramstein format. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iceland published a statement on Saturday, 23 December.
In addition to joining the two coalitions, Iceland has also announced an additional €340,000 in NATO's Comprehensive Assistance Package to purchase medical supplies for Ukraine.
"By joining the IT and mine action coalitions and providing additional funding to the Comprehensive Assistance Package for Ukraine, we continue to provide non-lethal support to Ukraine as it fights Russia's unjust and illegal invasion," said Icelandic Foreign Minister Bjarni Benediktsson.
The IT coalition at Ramstein was proposed by Estonia and Luxembourg, and currently includes eight countries (in addition to the two mentioned above, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania and Japan), with the UK and Italy announcing their intention to join.
Lithuania has announced the creation of a coalition for demining, but it has not yet been finalised. Its concept envisages both elements of humanitarian demining of the liberated occupied territories and combat demining on the line of contact with Russian troops.
Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, Iceland has been providing humanitarian, economic and security support to Ukraine, mainly through international organisations, including the UN, the World Bank, NATO and others.
Last month, Estonia, together with Iceland, donated another military field hospital to Ukraine.
In early October, Icelandic Foreign Minister Thordis Kolbrun Reykfjord Gylfadottir said that Ukraine's place is in NATO, and the war should end with Ukraine's victory.
"When we say that Ukraine is literally 'fighting for us', and we talk about an 'open door policy', and we say that we do not want to see 'grey areas', it means what? That Ukraine's place is in NATO. That this will continue to be our common cause in the future. And that all this is connected to other centres of instability in the world... The world is watching. And we are using this cliché not because it sounds dramatic, but because it is true," she stressed.
According to Gylfadottir, it is clear that Ukraine must win, and that Ukraine's future lies in the Alliance.
As The Gaze previously reported, a newly formed coalition aimed at strengthening the Ukrainian army will start its activities in Paris in January 2024. As part of the coalition, exercises are planned for 2024 to control the fire of Caesar self-propelled artillery systems using artificial intelligence. The use of AI will improve targeting and reduce ammunition consumption by 30%.