Josep Borrell, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, chaired today the last meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council before the summer holidays and the war in Ukraine has once again occupied a prominent place, in addition to discussing the situation in Turkey again , a pending issue that had been included in the diplomatic exchange with Erdogan so that he would lift the veto on Sweden’s entry into NATO at the last meeting of the defense organization in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Shortly before the meeting began, in statements to journalists, he expressed his desire to “strengthen the Union’s weapons production capacity to reach the figure of one million artillery pieces at Ukraine by March 2024”. Added to this is the extension of sanctions to Russia until January 31 of next year. From both statements it can be extracted that they consider that the war has no sign of ending in the short term.
The total number of sanctions packages has risen to 11 since February 24, 2022. The European Union In this way, it will continue to provide strong financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine. Ursula von der Leyenpresident of the European Comissionexpressed his desire that this be the case in Vilnius and so it is being.
As Borrel has stated, “24,000 Ukrainian soldiers have already been trained and the goal of 30,000 will be reached long before the end of the year.” The medium-long term plan is boost the Ukrainian defense industry by transferring technology so that “Ukraine can defend itself from any future conflict.”
On the peace formula presented by Zelenskythe high representative has valued it positively because “it has a universal character and is based on the principles of United Nations», but has recognized that it is imperative to «go into operational details». The last EU-CELAC summit It has served as an example to demonstrate that the positions on the invasion of Ukraine in the international sphere are far from being aligned. “You have to see how to advance in the search for peace with the countries that have not condemned the invasion of Ukraine,” he detailed.
Within this block of defense and security measures, the EU has also renewed the terrorist list for six months. The funds and other financial assets in the EU of the 13 people and the 21 groups and entities that make up the list are immobilized. In addition, EU operators are prohibited from providing them with funds and economic resources. On the other hand, they extend the restrictions to more Iranian citizens and companies due to the drone sale to the Kremlin.
strategic resources
The Council has given the go-ahead to start talks with USA in order to close agreements on fundamental minerals. The objective is the same as that pursued by the EU with the, so far failed, free trade agreement with Australia: ensure international supply chains that allow them to circumvent the main adversaries and minimize the possible consequences of an escalation in the economic war with China in the next years.
This economic measure is associated with work in the political-cultural field. The EU wants to “educate” as well as trade. To this end, it wishes to “promote high levels of environmental protection and worker protection in the key minerals sector and encourage corporate social responsibility in all key minerals supply chains.”
By “social responsibility” is meant the entire package of ideological measures that the European Union boasts of, not all of which are viewed favorably in the rest of the world and considered as an interference in the national sovereignty of third parties.
awkward Türkiye
Turkey was granted EU accession candidate country status in December 1999. Accession negotiations started in October 2005. However, the EU argues that “due to the continued backsliding of Türkiye on democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights” these negotiations had been at a standstill since June 2018. The desire to expand the NATO has influenced European regional policy to the point that, as long as Erdogan lifted the veto on Sweden, it was put on the table to restart the talks to continue negotiating the adhesion to the community bloc. Of course, for now he has no signs of the position changing.
Presence of Antony Blinken
The foreign ministers of the European Union have had an informal chat with the US Secretary of State. Anthony Blinkenthe most important position in the US administration after the president.
There has been talk of closer ties of “foreign policy cooperation and coordination between the EU and the US.” to meet global challenges, find a common approach to China and engage with new partners in a changing world. This is the fourth time Secretary Blinken has participated in a Foreign Affairs Council meeting since his confirmation of the post on January 26, 2021.
