This has opened an exciting new possibility for action by our group. On March 2, 2025, during the 2025 London Summit on Ukraine, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Macron announced the formation of a new “Coalition of the Willing.”
Their goals:
- Provide robust new security guarantees for Ukraine
- Coordinate peacekeeping deployments and economic aid
- Demonstrate unity among democratic states in the face of aggression and authoritarian threats
Mr Macron and Mr Starmer agreed the headquarters would be in Paris and led by Britain and France to oversee all tactical and operational arrangements. The HQ will then rotate to London after the first 12 months
The Coalition of the Willing is a group of 31 countries that have pledged reinforced support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.
It is reported that this structure will allow partners to contribute military forces flexibly and send teams for various operational tasks. It is further stated that “once Coalition forces are deployed on the ground, a coordination cell will also be established in Kiev, which will be headed by a British two-star officer.”
Could this also be a possible basis for our Community? Member countries:
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom.
Points in favour:
- The Coalition is already a security grouping of states, forming a ‘supply chain’ for Ukraine. The members are already interlinked by various formal alliances and security arrangements, viz. NATO, AUKUS and the Quad. They have recently agreed to send peacekeeping troops to guarantee any peace settlement in Ukraine. This is virtually a global alliance of democracies already;
- The Coalition is already global, it includes Japan, Australia, New Zealand in the Indo-Pacific (but not South Korea);
- It includes 25 EU members, but not Hungary, Malta, Slovakia. Hungary and Slovakia are pro-Russian, and would have been likely to veto any moves against Russia.
- Includes the UK, Norway and Canada and 23 more NATO members, but not the US, Albania, Hungary, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Slovakia. The US under the Trump administration would have been unlikely to agree to any institutional architecture such as we are proposing.
It does Include Turkey, which might be a problem. The group has not reached a consensus on this possibility. It was remarked that the COW has no fixed structure and limited aims, and the members are unlikely to agree to anything more.