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As the United States and Russia held talks in Geneva this week on European security, the European Union was absent from the negotiating table, disappointing officials in the bloc.
“There are not only two actors in this dialogue, the United States and Russia. “If you want to talk about security in Europe, the Europeans need to be part of the talks.”, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters on January 5th.
Mr Borrell made the remarks following a visit to the front lines of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed rebels continue to fight Ukrainian forces almost seven years after Moscow’s forcible annexation of Crimea.
The EU entered the negotiating table late, says Washington-based analyst Liana Fix of the German Marshall Fund.
“The problem here is that the European Union was not officially involved in the 2014 talks when the crisis in Ukraine started. “At that time we had Germany and France in the Normandy format for talks and no official EU representatives.” said Fix analyst for VOA.
“On the other hand, the European Union must make clear what can contribute to the discussion.” she says. “Within the European Union, the question is who is more powerful, the member states or the EU itself as an institution? “On the other hand, in Moscow the EU is not taken seriously.”
There are fears that the war in eastern Ukraine could resume. In recent months, Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops near the border with Ukraine, sparking fears among Western countries of an imminent invasion. Meanwhile, Moscow is complaining about a NATO military rise in Eastern Europe and has warned of the dangers of confrontation.
These tensions became part of diplomatic clashes this week. But the US-Russia bilateral talks and Wednesday’s NATO-Russia summit, the first such meeting in two years, do not appear to have made any progress.
Amid a shift in world order and rising geopolitical tensions, France is leading a European push for what Paris calls greater “strategic sovereignty”, fueled by doubts about America’s commitment to NATO, which has long taken root. the administration of former President Donald Trump.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin was deliberately trying to bypass the EU.
“He has no regard for the European Union and is fully committed to trying to undermine European unity, which is strengthening.” said Le Drian for the BFM TV channel.
Moscow also aims to undermine the transatlantic alliance, says analyst Petro Burkovskiy of the Kiev-based Democratic Initiatives Foundation.
“Russia is using these talks to destroy trust between the United States and its European partners and is trying to show that the United States is ready to discuss its security in Europe and to discuss its policy in Europe by avoiding European partners.” Mr Burkovskiy told the Associated Press news agency.
Without its military strength, the European Union as an institution may not be taken seriously by Moscow, but the bloc could play an important role, says analyst Fix.
“When the European Union and the United States now think of sanctions against Russia in the event of an intervention, of an invasion of Ukraine, the European Union will have to submit a package of economic sanctions, to which all member states must agree.”
Meanwhile, following talks between NATO and Russian officials on Wednesday, US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman, who led the US delegation, said the transatlantic allies were united.
“I think one of the things Russia has done, which it probably did not expect, is that it has united all of Europe, NATO and non-NATO allies, in trying to share the same principles,” he said. the same ambitions, the same hope and commitment to diplomacy “, she told reporters./VOA
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