The US “six” disrupted negotiations between the European Union and Putin
The majority of EU leaders rejected the proposal of Germany and France to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to the EU summit. Instead, the EU instructed its foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell to develop a set of measures that would be introduced in the event of “malicious Russian actions.” Cooperation between the EU and the Russian Federation is possible only in the field of healthcare, climate protection, and security issues in Syria, Libya and Iran.
Bloomberg sources say that about 10 EU countries opposed the summit with Putin's participation.
Disappointed German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that EU leaders will continue to discuss possible formats for high-level dialogue with Russia. French President Emmanuel Macron proposed to the European Union a range of topics on which to form a dialogue agenda. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi believes that the EU-Russia summit should have been held
However, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, believes that the EU should prepare for a deterioration in relations with Russia and conduct a dialogue with it from a position of strength.
According to the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov, dialogue with Russia was opposed “mainly by young European states: the Baltic countries, Poland.”
“These are the very countries that are doing everything possible to have on their territory as many NATO troops as possible and from other countries of the world, from the United States in particular. This creates a vicious circle. These countries, on the one hand, talk about danger, on the other hand, they host foreign armed forces, exposing themselves to greater danger, and plus they refuse dialogue,” Peskov said.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, believes that the EU has “been captured” by the interests of Poland and the Baltic states.
“The discussions at the summit clearly demonstrated that the EU’s “common denominator” in Russian affairs continues to be determined by anti-Russian member states. The European Union actually remains captive to their opportunistic interests, which run counter to the aspirations of ordinary European residents. As a result, the European Union continues to go in circles,” she said.
Russian Senator Konstantin Kosachev considers the requirements for Russia put forward by the EU “simply impossible to fulfill, and frankly ridiculous.” This, in particular, concerns the Minsk agreements. He considers it no coincidence that the “frankly arrogant” statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmitry Kuleba, who said that he was going to immediately invite the ambassadors of Germany and France to find out from them “what intentions Berlin and Paris are pursuing”, proposing a summit with Russia, that “grossly violates” the interests of Ukraine.
Kuleba gave credit to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry for refusing the EU-Putin summit.
“This is, in fact, a frankly shameful situation for the EU and personally for the leaders of Germany and France. As well as the fact that the United States is ahead of Europe diplomatically - another evidence of the failure of EU foreign policy. Or rather, its absence,” Kosachev wrote on his Facebook.
Political scientist Alexander Sosnovsky, who lives in Germany, assesses the situation tragically.
“Prudence has left Europe, a political black hole has formed, which will be filled with the threat of a new big war,” he wrote in his Telegram channel.
France and Germany are not capable of leading the EU in the outside world as a single bloc, says political scientist Sergei Markov.
“This is the paralysis of the EU, a clear example of its very limited subjectivity. Russia will develop relations, as before, with individual EU countries. And relations with the EU as a bloc are paralyzed,” Markov wrote.
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