Strengthening the military capabilities of European Union (EU) partner states, including by providing weapons, has become an important element of the EU’s approach to peace and security over the past five years. This shift from an approach centred  mainly around crisis management means the EU is entering  a space occupied by several other actors, including some EU  member states, allied states—notably the United States—and what the EU refers to as its ‘strategic competitors’. The shift is a rapid evolution that is occurring against a backdrop of volatility in US foreign policy and intensifying strategic competition in the EU’s broader neighbourhood. Together, these trends raise important questions about how the EU compares to other external actors as a provider of military assistance.

To address these questions, SIPRI has produced three fact sheets that map military assistance provided by the EU and other external actors to states in the broader European neighbourhood. The fact sheets will feed into a larger study into the effectiveness of the EU’s military assistance to partner states and its coherence with that of EU member states. This fact sheet provides an overview of the EU’s and other external actors’ military assistance to states in the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood in 2010–25. 

Download the centerfold here.

This publication was realized in the context of the project ‘Safeguarding Common Interests: The EU’s Military Assistance to Partner Countries’, which is funded by Stiftung Mercator.