European countries are set to take further steps as early as tomorrow to punish Russia over the poisoning of a former spy in England, officials said on Friday, as diplomatic pressure builds on Moscow over the nerve agent attack.
Russia has accused London of trying to force its European allies to take “confrontational steps” and unleashing an “anti-Russian campaign.”
EU leaders meeting in Brussels have agreed to recall EU Ambassador to Russia Markus Ederer from Moscow over the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in the English city of Salisbury.
Photo: Reuters
French President Emmanuel Macron said the poisoning with the Soviet-made “Novichok” agent was an “attack on European sovereignty,” after EU leaders unanimously backed London’s assessment that it was “highly likely” Moscow was to blame and that there was no plausible alternative explanation.
A number of member states are considering following Britain’s lead and expelling Russian intelligence agents posing as diplomats, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying that further coordinated actions were “necessary” to respond to the attack.
A group of 23 diplomats expelled by Moscow in a tit-for-tat move has “returned to the UK safely,” British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Boris Johnson said on Twitter late on Friday.
The question of whether to expel Russian diplomats would be left to individual member states, with European Council President Donald Tusk saying that action was expected as early as tomorrow.
However, divisions remain over how far to go, with Austria already ruling out expelling diplomats, and Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, said it was not clear how many states would join the expulsions.
“More than one, but I don’t think that it will be the whole group,” Tusk said.
Macron told a news conference with Merkel after the summit in Brussels that the March 4 incident — for which Russia has denied responsibility — was “a serious challenge to our security and ... an attack on European sovereignty.”
“It calls for a coordinated, determined response from the European Union and its member states,” he said.
British Prime Minister Theresa May briefed other EU leaders on a probe into the attack over a summit dinner on Thursday.
She overcame resistance from countries such as Greece and Italy, which were reluctant to put their close Kremlin ties in jeopardy, to persuade them to back Britain’s conclusion that Moscow was to blame.
May shared “certain findings” that left little doubt Moscow was behind the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since World War II, Merkel said.
“We believe that the analyses are already very well-founded and this has not been questioned by anyone,” Merkel said. “We agreed — Germany and France at least — that such reactions are still necessary in addition to recalling the ambassador.”
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS