Brussels, Europe Brief News – The EU’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell has lashed out to claims that his bloc has been “missing in action” over the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
Speaking at a debate on the Ukraine crisis, Josep Borrell said criticism the EU had gone missing were unfounded.
He told MEPs that EU countries had shown “remarkable unity”. He also hailed the diplomatic efforts of France and Germany.
Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz, both travelled to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Borrell also appeared to imply the recent breakthroughs. This came after Tuesday’s announcements that Russia has begun to withdraw some troops from the Ukrainian border and in Crimea. But Western countries say they have yet to see proof of — could not have happened without the EU.
“Russia deliberately tried to ignore the existence of the EU by sending letters only to the United States and NATO in December considering that we are completely irrelevant and have nothing to say about security issues in Europe. For Moscow, the security in Europe is being defined in Washington,” he said.
“Later, when they noticed that despite this dismissive attitude, nothing was going on. Mr Lavrov (Russia’s foreign minister) finally decided to send a letter to the 27 member states that he had ignored until now. Why such a U-turn on Russia position?” he continued. “Because they realised that the European front was not cracked and the Atlantic solidarity was very strong.”
