Vet News: Joint Statement on Counter-ISIL Cooperation by the Defense Ministers of Australia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States

Joint Statement on Counter-ISIL Cooperation by the Defense Ministers of Australia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States

Paris, January 20, 2016

The text of the following statement was released by the defense ministers of Australia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States following a meeting co-hosted by France and the United States in Paris on counter-ISIL cooperation.

Australian Minister for Defense Marise Payne, French Minister of Defense Jean-Yves Le Drian; German Minister of Defense Ursula von der Leyen, Italian Minister of Defense Roberta Pinotti, Dutch Minister of Defense Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, British Secretary of State for Defense Michael Fallon; and American Secretary of Defense Ash Carter led their respective delegations.

Today in Paris - at the invitation of French Minister of Defense Jean-Yves Le Drian and U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter - we discussed opportunities to intensify and accelerate the counter-ISIL/DAESH military campaign in Iraq and Syria, our shared approach to defend against its global ambitions, and to ensure the protection of our citizens. ISIL/DAESH are on the back foot. But there is more we need to do.

We reaffirmed our governments' continuing substantial commitment to work together with the entire C-ISIL/DAESH Coalition to accelerate and intensify the campaign against ISIL/DAESH, in order to deliver a lasting defeat to this barbaric organization.  We expressed our broad support for the campaign plan objectives, and the need to continue gathering momentum in our campaign, as it moves into its next phase targeting ISIL/DAESH's vulnerabilities. We discussed military campaign requirements to expand efforts against ISIL/DAESH and committed to work together with other military and non-military contributors to fill these requirements.  We agreed to review regularly the coalition's campaign plan and the progress in its implementation.

The military campaign is an essential part of our overall effort to defeat and destroy ISIL/DAESH, but it is not sufficient. We are committed to ensuring the coherence of our military actions with the comprehensive efforts to set the conditions for sustainable political stability in the region.

We thank all of our partners are helping us advance the military campaign against ISIL/DAESH and its infrastructure. We recognize in particular the dedication and steadfastness of local partner forces.

We endorsed Secretary Carter's proposal for defense ministers of the C-ISIL Coalition force contributing nations to convene their first Defense Ministerial, in February.