NATO defence ministers pose for family photo in Brussels

Описание: (13 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Brussels - 13 February 2025
1. Wide of NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte arriving for family photo
2. Various of NATO defence ministers arriving for family photo
3. Close of U.K. Defence Minister John Healey
4. U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth arriving
5. Pan of ministers
6. French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu arriving and ministers posing for photo
7. Wide of of Rutte and Hegseth shaking hands
8. Various of Hegseth talking to ministers

STORYLINE:
NATO defence ministers gathered at the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels on Thursday for talks on Ukraine.

The organization’s 32 defence ministers were holding the meeting a day after the Trump administration signalled that it is planning face-to-face talks with Russia on ending the Ukraine war and insisted that Kyiv should not join NATO.

Several NATO allies stressed on Thursday that Ukraine and Europe must not be cut out of any peace negotiations as U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth denied that the United States is betraying the war-ravaged country.

After talks with Putin and then Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump said on Wednesday he would “probably” meet in person with the Russian leader in the near term, possibly in Saudi Arabia.

Hegseth denied that the U.S. has betrayed Ukraine by launching negotiations about its future without Kyiv’s full involvement.

He warned that the war in Ukraine must “be a wakeup call” for NATO’s European allies to spend more on their own defence budgets.

Twenty-three of the 32 member countries were forecast to have met the organization’s guideline of spending 2% of gross domestic product on their national defence budgets last year, but a third still do not.

AP video shot by Mark Carlson

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