EU should be involved in talks with Russia on war to outline future European security architecture - Costa
Kyiv • UNN
President of the European Council Costa insists on the EU's participation in negotiations with Russia over the war in Ukraine. He emphasized that Russia poses a global threat not only to Ukraine but to the entire European security.
Russia is a global threat, not just to Ukraine, so Europeans should be key participants in the development of a new security architecture. This was stated by the President of the European Council Antonio Costa to The Financial Times, reports UNN.
Details
According to The Financial Times, last week Trump announced bilateral talks with Putin to end the nearly three-year war, which alarmed European capitals who fear that a deal could be struck without their participation.
If Trump really wants Europeans to take more responsibility for their own security, then of course Europeans should be key players in the development of a new security architecture. This is not just about Ukraine. Negotiations on a new security architecture must take into account that Russia is a global threat, not just to Ukraine,
Costa's remarks came as European capitals reeled from a week of unexpected statements from the Trump administration, including talks on Saudi Arabia between Marco Rubio and Sergey Lavrov and a sharp speech by Vice President J.D. Vance accusing European governments of violating the rule of law and suffering from a “threat from within” that was more dangerous than Russia.
On Saturday, Trump's representative to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said that European countries would not have a “seat at the table” in the talks, but that their views could be taken into account.
However, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview on CBS News that Ukraine and the Europeans would have to be involved in negotiations to end the war.
The Financial Times quoted sources as saying that the US had sent European capitals a request for information on what weapons, money, and peacekeeping troops they could provide to post-conflict Ukraine, which officials said was an opportunity to lobby for the right to influence the negotiations.
The negotiations are between the warring parties. Of course, there is a need to negotiate between Ukraine and Russia. But this war in Ukraine is not only about Ukraine. It is about European security,
On the eve of his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin demanded that NATO reduce its defense deployment in Eastern Europe. NATO and its member states refused to do so.
Costa cited Russia's aggressive stance toward the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which are members of the EU and NATO, as well as the occupation of territory in the states on the EU's eastern flank as reasons why Brussels should have participated in the talks.
Russia clearly poses a threat to the sovereignty of the Baltic States, to our eastern border. They have a military presence in Moldova, in Georgia,
