U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter won agreement from defense ministers from France and five other nations on Wednesday to intensify the campaign against IS militants in Iraq and Syria.
A bilateral meeting was held firstly between Ashton Carter and Jean-Yves Le Drian, France’s Defense Minister, to discuss the issue before the closed-door meeting among the defense ministers from the other five countries, including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy and Germany. This is the first defense minister-level meeting since the establishment of the allies led by the U.S.
Ashton Carter and Jean-Yves Le Drian held a news conference on the same afternoon, with Le Drian calling for joint efforts to fight against IS.
“We should continue to fight against extremist groups comprehensively on the ground to collapse their spirits. It’s time for us to strengthen joint efforts and implement a coordinated military strategy,” said Le Drian.
Ashton Carter brought forward three goals to draw out a blueprint for the future fight.
“First, to destroy the ISIL cancers parent tumor in Iraq and Syria by collapsing its two power centers in Raqqa and Mosul. Second, to combat the metastases of the ISIL tumor worldwide. And third, to protect our people at home,” said Ashton Carter.
Despite the united front shown by the seven nations of the coalition at Wednesday’s meeting, Carter seemed less certain about building closer ties with Russia in regards to their operation in Syria.
“We don’t have a basis for broader cooperation because the Russians are on the wrong tracks strategically. And also in some cases tactically as was noted,” he added. (Reuters)
