Tanks For Ukraine: How the European Members of NATO Have Responded

This Info Flash outlines the critical security aid that has reached Kyiv from the European members of the NATO alliance. Ukraine has welcomed this aid from its European counterparts, but the nation’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has continuously pressed European leaders to allow the transfer of their main battle tanks (MBTs) to help push back Russian forces. This request has ignited debates among policymakers and analysts about whether MBTs would make a difference for Ukraine on the battlefield and whether states should grant Zelensky’s request for tanks. As a result, the policies of European NATO members regarding MBT transfers have been mixed since February 2022. Some European NATO members quickly supplied Ukraine with MBTs, while others have only recently given the green light to transfer MBT units.

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Turkey’s approval of Finland NATO membership

After several months of delay, on the 30th of March 2023, Turkey’s Parliament voted unanimously to officially allow Finland’s membership into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This event represents a major shift in the international balance of power, with Finland abandoning decades of non-alignment, to become the 31st member of the Western defense alliance (Erlanger, 2023). Thought it should be noted that the membership will only be formalized during the next NATO summit, taking place in July in Lithuania (Gardner, 2023).

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The Su-25 and the Russia-Belarus Military Cooperation

This Info Flash outlines the necessity to take a closer look at Russian-Belarusian military cooperation. While increased military cooperation between Russia and Belarus can be expected in an ongoing war, this depends on many more factors, and it is rather difficult to estimate its exact form. For the European Union, however, this cooperation poses a significant risk, and even though the involvement of the Belarusian army in the war seems unlikely, many factors at play can change this. The previously reached factors and many more factors are further discussed in this work, with the main research questions focusing on how close is the Belarus-Russian military cooperation and why it poses a threat to the European Union.

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A New Era of Japan-EU Cooperation: the Digital Partnership

This Info Flash outlines the development of the EU-Japan cooperation that saw several improvements over the last few years in politics, development, strategy, and security. Their bilateral agenda has been constantly dominated by digital and technological issues in order to improve the degree of global connectivity. Despite the many challenges raised by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russo-Ukrainian War, the digital partnership between the EU and Japan has broadened from public services and digital infrastructures to technological skills for citizens and innovation businesses.

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Bringing Back Military Mobility

This Info Flash outlines how the conflict in Ukraine has reignited concerns within Europe regarding military mobility because of several factors like bureaucratic delays in border crossings and much of Europe’s infrastructure not prepared for military use. As a result, significant work needs to be done to ensure seamless military movement across Europe’s many borders. Fortunately, the European Union already has large infrastructure projects which can be updated to incorporate military requirements. In addition, NATO's involvement has been and continues to be an important factor in hosting training exercises and setting goals. Finally, it can be presumed that the EU will allocate more funding for this continental project, while also focusing on cyber defence threats

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