A divided EU has demanded a role in next week’s negotiations with Russia ov the Ukraine crisis and broader issues of European defense, after Vladimir Pul succeeded in sidelining the bloc in favour of talks with the US and Nato.
EU officials speaking to the Financial Times expressed frustration at the way negotiations in Geneva and Brussels were arranged — with Russian officials s to discuss the security of Ukraine and the whole European continent with counterparts from both Washington and the US-led military alliance. While officials have remained in close contact with those in Brussels and in individual EU states, Washington has not sought to alter Moscow’s proposed negotiations.
Brussels “cannot be a neutral spectator in the negotiations” over Europe’s future security architecture, EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday as he started a three-day visit to Ukraine.
The sidelining underscored Brussels’ lack of foreign policy clout amid divergent views on how to handle Russia and internal disagreements over the EU’s own security policy, the EU officials said, pointing to the inability of its 27 members to agree on a long-planned statement of co-operation with Nato.
“This is not a theoretical exercise right now, it is about real threats,” a senior EU government minister said of the debate over co-operation with Nato. “In the current context, [the delay] exposes the divisions inside the union and makes us less able to respond to Russia as one.”
Moscow, which has massed more than 100,000 troops close to the Ukrainian border, has issued a list of security demands to the west and threatened military action if they are ignored. They include Nato and the US not offering membership to Ukraine, and restricting the transatlantic alliance’s deployments in EU countries close to Russia.
While Brussels is overlooked, some member states have instead sought bilateral contacts with Russia. Germany and France have stepped up diplomatic efforts, with German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s new foreign policy adviser Jens Plötner and his French counterpart Emmanuel Bonne travelling this week to Moscow for talks with senior Russian officials. The two will also meet Ukrainian officials this week for separate discussions.