On 10  July of this year, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu met in Berlin to discuss the advancement of the long-planned MGCS (Main Ground Combat System) project. The two ministers reinforced the willingness of their respective governments to push forward with the joint procurement of a new generation tank capable of integrating the technologies and characteristics needed on the battlefield of the future, drawing from the lessons of the ongoing Ukrainian war. The cooperation between the two countries on the MGCS tanks was part of a larger package of joint procurements agreed upon between Macron and Merkel's administrations in January 2019. It included a fighter jet (FCAS), an armed drone, artillery systems and a maritime reconnaissance aircraft

More than a year has passed since Finland and Sweden jointly submitted their applications to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) on 18 May 2022. Since then, neither of the countries has achieved their desired outcome of swiftly becoming a member of NATO. Unlike Sweden, Finland initially faced a veto from Türkiye. However, this block was eventually lifted following multiple rounds of negotiations, after which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recognised that the issue of ‘Kurdish terrorist activity in Finland had been addressed.

At the Helsinki European Council on 10 and 11 December 1999, EU heads of state and government laid the foundations for various permanent political and military bodies: the Political and Security Committee (PSC), the EU Military Committee and Committee for Civilian Crisis Management. In the short and medium term, these actors would enable the EU to enforce its responsibilities in conflict prevention and crisis management. The Council of Ministers of the then-existing Western European Union outlined such responsibilities in the June 1992 Petersberg Declaration. It included humanitarian and rescue tasks, peace-keeping tasks and tasks of combat forces in crisis management.