NATO releases schedule for meetings of defence ministers, NATO-Ukraine Council and Ukraine Defence Contact Group

The North Atlantic Alliance has released the schedule for a ministerial meeting to be held on 15 October at NATO Headquarters. The NATO-Ukraine Council and the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (also known as the Ramstein format) will also meet on the same day.

Source: NATO press service, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Ministers will begin arriving at Headquarters and giving comments to the press from 08:00 onwards. At 08:30, there will be a joint statement by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is referred to in the schedule as "Secretary of War", although the Pentagon has not yet been officially renamed.

The meeting of defence ministers will start at 09:00.

An informal NATO-Ukraine Council session will begin at 12:30, without media comments. A briefing by Rutte is planned for 14:15.

The meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group is scheduled for 15:00. It will open with public remarks from the defence ministers of the United Kingdom and Germany and Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal.

Afterwards, at 17:00, a joint briefing by Rutte and Shmyhal will take place, followed by a joint press conference at 17:40.

Background:

• Earlier on 13 October, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy outlined Ukraine's priorities for the upcoming Ramstein meeting.
• The last Ramstein meeting was held on 9 September in London.
• An extraordinary meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council was convened on 1 September at Ukraine's request in response to large-scale Russian attacks.

Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!