The E5 talks were held in Berlin between the leaders of the UK, France, Italy, Poland and Germany ahead of the NATO summit in July.
Published June 24, 2026
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said top European leaders wanted to send a “strong signal of support for Ukraine” at the NATO summit in Ankara in July.
“The message to Russia is that Ukraine remains strong,” Merz told the leaders of Britain, France, Italy and Poland at the Five European Summit in Berlin on Wednesday.
Recommended stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
This followed a videolink call between the E5 leader and NATO chief Mark Rutte.
Leaders from 32 countries, including US President Donald Trump, will attend the NATO summit in the Turkish capital on July 7 and 8.
In a joint statement, Merz, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Britain’s Keir Starmer, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Poland’s Donald Tusk pledged to “further substantively support Ukraine’s defense against Russian aggression, including through sanctions and economic pressure on Russia and support for the resilience of Ukraine’s energy sector.”
Merz also said a successful summit would strengthen transatlantic ties with the United States and “bring us together as Europeans.”
The German chancellor added that he would brief Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan about the situation after their meeting in Berlin.
Al Jazeera’s Dominic Cain, reporting from Berlin, said Mertz was “trying to send a message to the wider world, and perhaps to two specific people, Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, that the E5 countries are ready to play a role in NATO.”
Kaine emphasized that the meeting in Berlin reflected the E5’s message at last week’s EU summit about “a clear commitment to increasing defense spending to support Ukraine.”
This comes after Trump said he would do whatever he could to end the Russia-Ukraine war after “very good” talks in France during the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains near the Swiss border last week.
Macron and Meloni said European countries would announce their preparations for a military mission in the Strait of Hormuz at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit.
But both men said several conditions still need to be met, including the need for the U.S. and Iran to finalize the memorandum of understanding that led to the ceasefire, including nuclear inspectors and asset freezes.
European leaders also praised outgoing British Prime Minister Starmer for his work over the past two years, with Merz citing his “team play”, Macron his “good strategic decisions” and Meloni’s “excellent cooperation”. Mr Tusk, an Anglophile, went so far as to say Mr Starmer’s commitment meant Europe was once again a united force, with leaders “forgetting about Brexit for a while”.
