Australian troops could play role in Ukraine peace deal
By Rob Harris
London: Defence Minister Richard Marles has left the door open to greater Australian military co-operation with allies in Ukraine – including an ongoing role in peacekeeping – as Europe debates potentially sending in troops as part of any post-war security pact.
European leaders are planning to meet this week in Brussels with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte to discuss peace plans and the potential deployment of peacekeeping forces to Ukraine.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles in London for the Australia-UK ministerial consultations.Credit: AP
The meeting comes after pressure from US President-elect Donald Trump for European countries to monitor any future peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow by sending troops to Ukraine.
Meeting British counterparts in London on Monday, Marles said Australia would stand side-by-side with the UK in its efforts to support Ukraine in its war against Russia and said his government’s support was there for the long term.
“We will stand by Ukraine and continue our support until it can resolve this conflict on its terms,” Marles said, adding he had recommitted Australian troops to Operation Interflex, a training program for Ukrainians, for another year.
“But we will continue to look at ways in which we can support Ukraine for as long as it takes, and we will work really closely with the UK in terms of what that commitment looks like.”
Wong and Marles with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy (left) and British Defence Secretary John Healey (second from right) in London.Credit: Getty Images
Marles said the government’s actions on Ukraine spoke for themselves, having dramatically scaled up support in the past few months with more than $650 million work of tanks, boats and military hardware.
Reports of thousands of North Korean soldiers arriving in Ukraine to support Russia have reignited a debate about whether European countries should send soldiers to the war-torn country should a peace agreement hold.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said this week Australia could help secure Ukraine by providing “boots on the ground” to help deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from achieving his goal of conquering the country.
He told The Nightly that the security of both Europe and the Indo-Pacific were connected because of the involvement of China and North Korea in the conflict.
Asked directly, Marles did not expand on what role Australia’s defence forces would play in any ongoing security arrangement should Kyiv and Moscow come to a peace deal.
But Marles supported UK Defence Secretary John Healey’s comments that it was most important now to back Ukraine in its fight.
Asked if he was considering placing British troops on the ground to keep the peace as part of any ongoing ceasefire, Healey said his message was that Putin “cannot prevail, he will not prevail, and Ukraine will have our support for as long as it needs”.
He said Ukraine needed to be in the “strongest possible” position if Zelensky decided to start talking as well.
“Our job as allied nations that stand steadfast with Ukraine is to support them in any negotiations, just as we will through any battlefield fighting,” Healey said.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who stood beside Marles at the press conference at Lancaster House in central London, will travel to Strasbourg and Brussels this week to meet with her European Union counterpart Kaja Kallas and NATO’s Rutte on Tuesday. They are expected to discuss China’s ongoing role in the conflict as well as shared security concerns.
French President Emmanuel Macron raised the potential of a 40,000-strong peacekeeping force composed of troops from foreign countries in a meeting with Polish President Donald Tusk. The peacekeeping force proposal is separate from Macron’s previous idea to send military instructors to Ukraine during the ongoing war.
Zelensky has previously said he could work with Macron’s position that allied troops have a presence in some territories of Ukraine, which would guarantee Kyiv’s security, while Ukraine was not a member of NATO.
He said for the first time last week he would be willing to cede territory to Russia to end the war if it meant a security guarantee from NATO forces.
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