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\nKaja Kallas will chair the defence minister’s meeting<\/p>\n
EU defence ministers are gathering in Co Wicklow today for an informal meeting as part of Ireland’s hosting of the Presidency of the European Council.<\/p>\n
There will be an increased garda presence, road closures and airspace restrictions in the area.<\/p>\n
Minister for Defence Helen McEntee is likely to discuss a range of issues with her European counterparts including EU support for Ukraine, Lebanon and maritime security.<\/p>\n
The gathering comes after Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin last week said one of Ireland’s priorities during the EU Presidency was to “unequivocally back Ukraine” as it continues to face attacks from Russia.<\/p>\n
Ms McEntee will host an informal meeting of ministers from 27 EU member states – chaired by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas – before hosting a press conference this afternoon.<\/p>\n
Ministers meeting at the Druids Glen resort will also likely focus on the latest developments in the US war against Iran, after the US this week carried out what it called targeted strikes to tackle an imminent threat from Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
There is a significant Garda operation in place in the vicinity of Druids Glen, with garda\u00ed advising people to follow instructions when encountering road closures.<\/p>\n
The Irish Aviation Authority has also put in place airspace restrictions around Dublin for the duration of the gathering, with curbs in place on the flying of drones.<\/p>\n
A notice from the IAA states the restrictions are “for reasons of security” at the request of the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n
\nKaja Kallas will chair the defence minister’s meeting<\/p>\n
Tomorrow, EU member states’ foreign ministers will also meet in Ireland to discuss issues including transatlantic relations and the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha will be among those to attend tomorrow’s meeting while the foreign ministers of Iceland, Britain, Canada, Norway and Switzerland have also been invited to join the discussion.<\/p>\n
Speaking ahead of the meetings, Ms McEntee said: “Measures at a European level have a direct impact here at home. They affect the cost of doing business, the security of our energy supply, the opportunities available to our farmers and exporters, and our ability to respond to challenges such as war, economic instability and technological change”.<\/p>\n
“The Presidency provides Ireland with an opportunity to shape these decisions and to push for solutions that deliver for people right across Ireland and the EU.”<\/p>\n
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties yesterday wrote to Ms McEntee urging her to use Ireland’s Presidency to step up efforts to protect the International Criminal Court from the US, after the US Department of State announced it would escalate its campaign against the court, with the stated aim of “dismantling” the institution “brick by brick”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EU defence ministers are gathering in Co Wicklow today for an informal meeting as part of Ireland’s hosting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-610749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}