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Europe chooses team for Ukraine talks

EU leaders agreed that Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and EU officials would represent Europe in future Ukraine peace talks, saying Europe must speak with “one clear and united voice”.

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DUBLIN: EU leaders on Friday (Nov 13) agreed Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the bloc’s institutions would represent Europe at future Ukraine talks, despite Russia refusing to commit to giving Kyiv’s backers a seat at the table.

Europe had been debating its team for a next round of negotiations after US envoys said Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had given his green light for them to join. 

The Kremlin appeared to push back Friday by saying it wanted to understand Europe’s “real intentions and their willingness to contribute” before a decision on it taking part. 

But European Council chief Antonio Costa, who chaired a summit of EU leaders in Dublin, said they had still moved ahead and picked their negotiating line-up.

“Europe must speak with one clear and united voice in all discussions that shape the future of Ukraine and the security of our continent,” he said.

“This is ultimately a team effort.”

While Europe has now settled the question of who will represent it, it also needs to resolve the question of what it is willing to discuss with the Kremlin.

Russia is pushing its longstanding desire to renegotiate Europe’s broader security framework, with the Kremlin appearing to want to revive hardline demands to roll back NATO.

“Our focus needs to be on ending the war and achieving peace for Ukraine,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said.

“The path to peace will not be easy, but we will remain united, as we have been over the last five years, in our support for Ukraine, and with the end goal clear in our minds.”

RUSSIAN “TRAPS”

US envoy Jared Kushner, who is also US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, said that getting Europe on board will “allow us to address the broader post-war European security arrangements”.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, however, rejected that notion.

“Russia wants to talk about questions of a European security architecture. We do not need to discuss that, it already exists,” Merz said.

EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas meanwhile warned against walking into Russian “traps” over Ukraine talks, saying reaching a ceasefire needed to be the priority, not broader security negotiations. 

“If we start to talk about what Russia is asking regarding the security architecture, we actually walk into the traps that Russia is setting us, which is that we divert the attention away,” Kallas told reporters in Dublin.

“First we need a ceasefire,” said the foreign policy chief – a Russia hawk who appeared to have been sidelined in the choice of Europe’s negotiating lineup.

Despite the apparent momentum in the negotiation process after days of diplomacy in Abu Dhabi, Moscow and Dublin this week, there are few signs from Russia that peace is getting closer. 

In his meeting with Washington’s envoys on Thursday, Putin suggested that the Kremlin will not compromise on its hardline demands to end almost five years of war.

Meanwhile Russia continues its ferocious bombing campaign in Ukraine ahead of what looks set to be an extremely difficult winter for the war-weary country. 

“We don’t get any sense yet that Russia is serious about peace,” Irish prime minister Micheal Martin said. 

Source: AFP/fs

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