The US will no longer chair the group of key Ukraine allies known as the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (UDCG), leaving it permanently up to Europeans from now on, Dutch Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans has told Euronews.
“The chairmanship has been taken over by Germany and the UK,” Minister Brekelmans said.
“I think that it’s good that it has been now taken over, that we are meeting on a regular basis. The United States is still participating,” he said.
“I think it’s very important that we all decided to continue the UDCG, the Ramstein Group, a corporation of more than 50 countries to support Ukraine.”
The UDCG, also known as the Ramstein group, is an alliance of 57 countries (all 32 member states of NATO and 25 other countries) and the European Union, providing military equipment to Ukraine since the full-scale invasion.
It’s a role once exclusively held by the United States under former defence secretary Lloyd Austin but successor Pete Hegseth has never chaired it.
Since then, the UK and Germany have stepped into the breach, but it hadn’t been clear whether this was a temporary measure until now.
Western sources initially said the UK and German joint-chair was a stopgap while the Trump administration and new team became fully acquainted with the file.
The US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth attended online today.
The move comes amid a series of other signals by the Trump administration that the US role in NATO is diminishing.
Western allies are also bracing themselves for the potential withdrawal of thousands of troops from Europe. Currently, the US has 100,000 troops stationed across mainly central Europe.
Brekelmans says if such an announcement is forthcoming that he hoped the US would do so as part of a negotiated process, keeping allies abreast of the plans.
“If the United States, over time, decides to reallocate some of its resources to their own region—for homeland defence—or to the Indo-Pacific or anywhere else, I think the most important thing is that we do this together,” he said.
“We need a shared plan where they can shift some resources, and we, as European countries, can gradually take over.”
“But we need to keep the United States on board. They will remain essential to our security. It’s also in the interest of the United States to keep NATO strong — and that’s what they always state,” Brekelmans concluded.
The US NATO delegation has been contacted for comment.
