European nations risk walking into a Russian “trap” by getting bogged down over who should represent the EU in any Ukraine peace talks with Moscow, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas said yesterday.
“It’s a trap that Russia wants us to walk into, that we discuss who talks to them, and they are already picking who is suitable, who is not. Let’s not walk into that trap,” Kallas told reporters as foreign ministers met in Cyprus to weigh their terms for talking with Moscow.
The European debate on re-engaging with Moscow has been getting louder with Russian President Vladimir Putin appearing on the back foot.
Photo: AP
Speculation over potential envoys has picked up, with Putin himself suggesting that former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder could fit the bill — an idea rejected in Europe.
Ukraine’s European backers are first looking to decide what they want to discuss with Putin — the question topping the agenda at the talks yesterday — along with who could potentially represent them.
Some of the ministers in Cyprus were pushing to designate an envoy — including Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs Beate Meinl-Reisinge, who said that “this is very much what Ukraine expects: that the EU should now get ready.”
Meinl-Reisinge said she would be “pressing for the European Union to position itself, to be able to negotiate beyond its own interests and to appoint a chief negotiator.”
Many others echoed Kallas’ position — calling for the EU to stick to its red lines with Moscow, keep up support for Ukraine and not get distracted.
“This is not a time when we are discussing who is going to have the negotiations,” Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Kestutis Budrys said. “We have to discuss what we are doing to put additional pressure on Russia.”
Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Margus Tsahkna warned that the EU would be making a mistake by pivoting to a role of neutral mediator — rather than using “strategic patience” to press for its interests and those of Ukraine.
“Of course we can find, if the time is right, who’s going to represent Europe, but this is a trap now that Putin wants to bring Europe in,” Tsahkna said.
“Whoever would like to go right now — this guy is not going to have a Nobel Prize, because there won’t be any serious talks,” he added.
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
A Hong Kong astronaut is to join a Chinese space mission for the first time as part of a three-person crew launching today, as Beijing edges closer to its goal of landing people on the moon. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are typically rotated every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space program, boosted by billions in state investment in a bid to catch up with the US and Russia. The Shenzhou-23 mission is to blast off at 11:08pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to
UPGRADED ALERT: The risk inside DR Congo is now considered ‘very high,’ while neighboring countries face a ‘high’ threat as the outbreak continues, the WHO said Ebola is spreading faster than responders can track it in eastern Congo, where health workers managed to follow up with barely one in five identified contacts in a single day. Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) reported 83 confirmed infections, 746 suspected cases and 1,603 identified contacts as of Thursday, but health workers were able to follow up on only 342 contacts that day — about 21 percent of the total under monitoring — data released by the DR Congo Ministry of Public Health on Friday showed. The figures suggest the response is falling behind the outbreak itself,
RSS