Germany said the EU is facing difficult talks on extending sanctions against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, due to the increased resistance of some member states, according to an interview released yesterday.
German Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier also told the Baltic News Service (BNS) that the West needed to engage in dialogue with Russia to “rebuild” lost trust and tackle crises in Syria and Libya.
Steinmeier, who was to hold talks in Vilnius and Riga yesterday with Baltic partners Lithuania and Latvia focused on NATO’s July summit in Warsaw, said “we are aware that resistance in the EU to extending the sanctions towards Russia has increased.
“It will be more difficult than it was last year to find a common position on this issue,” he said.
Steinmeier did not single out specific EU countries resisting continued sanctions, but Italy and Hungary have been among the most skeptical, while Poland and the Baltic states have repeatedly pressed for maintaining pressure on Moscow.
Current EU sanctions on Russia’s banking, defense and energy sectors expire in July. Extending them would require a unanimous vote and EU leaders are expected to discuss the issue next month.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini told a German daily last week that she expects an extension of the sanctions.
Steinmeier told BNS that Germany would “work hard to ensure that Europe presents a united front on this question,” adding that penalties remain “inextricably linked” to the peace deal over eastern Ukraine.
Last year’s peace accords signed in the Belarussian capital Minsk call for a ceasefire along with a range of political, economic and social measures to end the conflict that has claimed more than 9,300 lives since April 2014.
Ties between Russia and the West have plunged to their lowest point since the Cold War over Moscow’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Kiev and its support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Spooked by Russia’s actions, the eastern European states have lobbied the US-led alliance to increase its presence in the region.
The Lithuanian Ministry of Defense last month said that Germany “plans forming a NATO battalion group” in the nation.
Steinmeier said NATO would discuss additional deployments at the July summit in Poland, without elaborating.
He also said it was “good” that the NATO-Russia Council would meet ahead of the Warsaw summit.
“We need a dialogue with Russia in order to rebuild the trust that has been lost and to reduce the risk of being inadvertently drawn into a spiral of escalation,” Steinmeier said.
“We need Russia in tackling the major international trouble spots — both in Syria and in our efforts to stabilize Libya,” he said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese