{"id":681894,"date":"2026-11-11T22:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T22:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/681894\/"},"modified":"2026-11-11T22:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T22:12:10","slug":"ireland-in-talks-to-use-ukrainian-drone-technology-for-maritime-security-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/681894\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland in talks to use Ukrainian drone technology for maritime security \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland is in talks to use drone technology from Ukraine<\/a> for maritime security, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> has said. <\/p>\n

Following a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy<\/a> in Dublin on Wednesday, the Taoiseach said the Department of Defence<\/a> is exploring a joint memorandum with its Ukrainian counterpart on drone manufacturing and technology.<\/p>\n

He said this was given Ukrainian expertise in unmanned drones, with Ireland able to avail of Ukrainian technology for unmanned drones which could be used for maritime security. <\/p>\n

Zelenskiy said his country is \u201cready for co-production\u201d of drones with Ireland and that he expected \u201cour drone deal with Ireland to become operational\u201d. <\/p>\n

Zelenskiy is in Dublin to attend a meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), which Ireland is hosting as part of it presidency of the council of the European Union<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At a press conference following a meeting between the two leaders on Wednesday evening, Martin emphasised that any peace agreement must recognise the sovereignty of Ukraine, its territorial integrity and the right of the Ukrainian people to determine their own future. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have put Ukraine at the heart of our European presidency programme,\u201d the Taoiseach said, adding that \u201cas much progress as possible\u201d has been made on accession talks, while pledging that Ireland will do all it can to open the two remaining \u201cnegotiating clusters\u201d in this process before its presidency ends. <\/p>\n

Zelenskiy said it would be \u201can extremely important result\u201d to do so by the end of the year. <\/p>\n

\"MartinMartin and Zelenskiy in Government Buildings. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to fly into Dublin on Thursday to brief the Ukrainian president, having travelled from peace talks in Abu Dhabi to Moscow<\/a>, where they were to meet with Russian<\/a> president Vladimir Putin<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Ukrainian president said he expected to be briefed on the reaction from the Russian side to matters raised during the Abu Dhabi talks, including on the scale of prisoner of war exchanges, and the format for security guarantees that can be offered to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire, an energy ceasefire and a potential \u201ctrilateral\u201d meeting between leaders to discuss matters that cannot be delegated to negotiating parties. <\/p>\n

He said he wanted \u201cvery concrete\u201d answers on security guarantees from the US, while also emphasising that it was \u201cimpossible\u201d for Ukraine to consider giving up the Donbas region as part of a settlement. <\/p>\n

\u201cI expect to receive answers to this and to meet with them tomorrow evening in Dublin,\u201d he said, adding later: \u201cThe Americans are flying [to Moscow] with concrete, specific things to Putin, I would really like them to come to Dublin with specific things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"USUS special envoy Steve Witkoff (right), UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (C) and US president Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner (left) attend talks with a Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. Photograph: Altaf Qadri\/Pool\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Both men emphasised the importance of a European voice at the negotiating table, with Zelenskiy suggested that the Americans are warming to this position. He said he wants Europeans to be not on the sidelines, but participating on an equal footing.<\/p>\n

Martin said that European leaders would have discussions about who would represent Europe in peace negotiations at an informal meeting of EU leaders in Dublin on Friday, saying he expected to be \u201cin a position to bring clarity\u201d to that. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere has to be a European voice at the table when our interests are discussed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Zelenskiy said work on sanctions cannot be relaxed, both those applying to individuals and to businesses through which Russia can source components and equipment for weapons production.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian president said there was a \u201cwindow of opportunity\u201d to get a result by the end of this year against a backdrop of political changes in Europe and other changes under way in American politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that it\u2019s important for this negotiating team to get the result this year, based on what we\u2019re saying. It seems to me they really want that to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course we want to get results by the end of this year, and of course we will be doing everything to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Ukrainian president made no direct mention of Irish exports of alumina to Russia, he said: \u201cWe ask all our partners in Europe and around the world to focus on this. We need to restrict Russia\u2019s weapons production, this is one of the best ways to push Russia towards real dialogue, real steps towards peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s envoy on sanctions has said alumina produced by Aughinish Alumina<\/a> in Limerick \u201cundoubtedly\u201d ended up supplying, at least in part, the Russian military-industrial complex. <\/p>\n

Asked if he wanted EU countries, including Ireland, to send Ukrainians back to their home country if they have not completed their military service, Zelenskiy said there were complex situations around how people had left Ukraine but he wanted those people who were eligible for military service to return. <\/p>\n

Martin said: \u201cWe don\u2019t envisage pursuing people in that context in terms of sending people back and I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a dynamic we\u2019ve ever been asked to engage in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland is in talks to use drone technology from Ukraine for maritime security, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin has said.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[163884,3585,5148,61,60,1843,43,3589,9688,5936,58419],"class_list":["post-681894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-aughinish-alumina","tag-department-of-defence","tag-european-union","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-russia","tag-ukraine-crisis","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-volodymyr-zelenskiy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681894","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=681894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}