French President Emmanuel Macron’s call on the EU to continue its own talks with the Kremlin raises fears of a split that is developing in the Western world’s response to the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Macron has previously struggled to convince its EU partners of the need for Europe to take regional security into its own hands and be less dependent on the United States. However, his speech to European lawmakers on Wednesday, in which he called on the bloc to negotiate its own security and stability pact with the Kremlin, was welcomed by Russian state-owned media.
But some Central European and Baltic leaders said Macron’s comments were inappropriate and risk encouraging the Kremlin to try to play the United States and the European Union against each other and cause a rift when the United States demands Western unity.
Carl Bildt, the former Swedish Prime Minister, said he did not understand what Macron meant by coming up with “a new system for security and stability”.
“The next few months seem to require a solid defense of the existing order after 1989,” he tweeted.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Russia can “attack at very short notice”. There have also been reports that Russia has moved Iskander short-range ballistic missiles to the border and placed them within reach of Kiev. Russia has deployed an estimated 127,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders, according to Ukrainian intelligence.
Blinken promises a “quick and massive” response if Russia invades Ukraine
Some Russian units currently in Belarus, a Russian ally, have moved closer to the Ukrainian border, according to the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), a group of independent Russian researchers who say Russian military hardware has been discovered in Belarus’ Gomel region. a bit from Ukraine. Russian officials deny that they have any intention of attacking Ukraine and that Russian forces are in Belarus for joint military exercises.
Speaking to the European Parliament, Macron said: “It is good for Europe and the United States to coordinate, but it is important that Europe has its own dialogue with Russia.” He said Europeans should build a new framework “between us Europeans, share it with our NATO allies and propose it for negotiation to Russia”, he told EU lawmakers.
In addition, Macron stressed that borders should be inviolable and that the EU must not allow Russia to veto Ukraine or any other state from joining NATO, a key Russian demand.
Macron’s flow of an EU security pact with Russia is “exactly the wrong thing to do,” tweeted Edward Lucas, of the Center for European Policy Analysis, a US-based think tank and author of the book “The New Cold War.”
EU officials say they were blinded by Macron’s call for Europeans to engage in their own dialogue with the Kremlin, which is separate from the United States. Western diplomats said the French leader had not consulted other national leaders before the speech. On Thursday, senior EU officials tried to calm Washington down.
Germany ready to pay “high economic price” to defend Ukraine
Macron’s aides also tried to retract some of the French leader’s comments, with one saying that Paris is much too close to coordination with the United States. And he said Macron’s call for a new security framework would help strengthen “unity in the NATO alliance.”
The EU has not been directly involved in the most substantive talks with the Kremlin on Ukraine and a number of other Russian demands, including an end to NATO enlargement and a restoration of possible NATO military presence in the former Central European communist states that have joined. the Western Alliance.
Russian officials met last week with the United States and NATO, although EU representatives attended a meeting of the 57 states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Twenty-one of the EU’s 27 members are also NATO members.
Asked if the European Commission supports Macron’s proposal for separate talks with Russia, a spokesman said the EU was developing a strategy “in the context of ongoing contacts and coordination, both within the EU and between the EU and the transatlantic partners such as the US, Canada, NATO” and the OSCE. “
EU and NATO allies have agreed to reject Russian demands that Ukraine never join the Western alliance, but there have been signs of division among them over how the West should try to deter a Russian invasion of Ukraine and what measures to take. to be taken if Russia does. so.
NATO countries called for more arms to be delivered to Ukraine
Current and former Western diplomats have told VOA that although there is broad agreement among Western powers to sanction Russia in the event of a military invasion, there is still no final agreement on the details.
And there have been disagreements between NATO allies over the rearmament of Ukraine, where the Baltic NATO allies Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia have been pushing for several weeks to transfer US-made lethal weapons, including anti-tank and ground-to-air missiles. to Ukraine. In the middle of the week, they received the green light from the US State Department. But Germany is opposed to large-scale arms transfers to Ukraine, as they fear it may escalate the East-West confrontation.
On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden hinted at the challenge of keeping all NATO allies united. Biden reiterated warnings that Russia would face devastating Western sanctions if an attack was carried out. But at a news conference in Washington, he also said: “It’s one thing if it’s a minor intrusion, and we [in NATO] stop fighting over what we should do, not do. “
Ukrainian officials reacted angrily to Biden’s comments, saying they feared that US leaders inadvertently gave Russian leader Vladimir Putin the green light to make an intrusion short of a full-scale invasion. Ukrainian officials said they were surprised Biden distinguished between intrusion and invasion.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told the Wall Street Journal: “Speaking of minor and complete invasion or complete invasion, you can not be semi-aggressive. Either you are aggressive or you are not aggressive.” He added: “We should not give Putin the slightest chance to play with quasi-aggression or petty intrusion. This aggression has been there since 2014. This is a fact.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki issued a clarification in the midst of the Ukrainian backlash, saying: “President Biden has been clear with the Russian president: If any Russian military forces move across the Ukrainian border, it is a renewed invasion, and it will be met by a swift, stern and united response from the United States and our allies. “
At a joint press conference in Berlin on Thursday, neither Secretary Blinken nor his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock directly addressed Macron’s comments. Both foreign ministers emphasized the intensity of consultations between all Western allies
“The coordination and consultation between us allies could not be more intense than it is,” Baerbock said.
Blinken added: “All these commitments are part of extensive, ongoing consultations with our European allies and partners – more than a hundred in recent weeks alone, including with Ukraine, NATO, the European Union, the OSCE, Bucharest Nine, as well as many bilateral talks. with individual countries – to ensure that we speak and act together with one voice when it comes to Russia. “
Source: sn.dk