Brussels (EFE) China to contribute to peace in Ukraine.
“The Kremlin’s finances have been squeezed to the point that it forces them to choose between giving money for war or for their own people. As a Russian billionaire said about the future of Russia: ‘next year there will be no money’”, said the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, after meeting in Brussels with the High Representative for Foreign Policy of the EU, Josep Borrell.
In a statement without questions after a bilateral meeting prior to a meeting on energy cooperation, the head of US diplomacy defined the relationship between the EU and the US as “the broadest and most dynamic relationship in the world”.
The meeting came after both blocks announced on Monday that the US will send at least 50 billion cubic meters of gas (50 bcm) to the EU in 2023 to reduce the community’s dependence on Russian gas, after having sent 56 bcm. in 2022, and hours before Finland joins NATO.
“The EU remains united and our transatlantic community too,” Borrell said, adding that Washington and Brussels will continue to support Kiev in the war and “maintaining international pressure on Russia.”
The European politician -but not Blinken- referred in this sense to China and its role in the pacification of Ukraine, taking advantage of the fact that the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, was in Beijing on Friday, and that the head of state is there today French, Emmanuel Macron, and the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, and that Borrell himself will travel to the Asian giant next week.
“China has a moral obligation to contribute to a just peace. It cannot be on the side of the aggressor, nor can it support the aggressor militarily (…). We have been clear with China that its position on Russia’s atrocities and war crimes will determine the quality of our relationship with Beijing,” Borrell said.
Middle East and Africa
Both officials also discussed “the vicious circle of violence in Israel and in the occupied territories”, in the words of the European politician, who said that the situation in the Middle East shows that “a peace process is necessary”.
They also addressed the situation in Africa, first in Ethiopia, where the “huge crisis” seems to be “fixing” after the agreement for the cessation of hostilities between the government and the Tigray rebels, which is “one of the few good news in the world”, summarized Borrell.
They also discussed the situation in the Central African Republic and promised to continue making “efforts to stabilize the country so that they do not have to trust the Wagner Group”, which Borrell defined as “a group of mercenaries” that has had “a negative impact on the countries in which it has been”, where it has generated “more destabilization” at home and in the region.
“US and EU relations have never been stronger,” stressed Blinken, who thanked the EU for the financial, military and humanitarian aid it provides to Ukraine and the international sanctions that both blocs have decreed against Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Finland in NATO
The meeting between Blinken and Borrell occurred hours before the US Secretary of State received today in Brussels Finland’s accession document to NATO, the last formality that will make the Nordic country the thirty-first formal member of that military alliance that today celebrates 74 years since its creation on April 4, 1949.
The accession, which will become official with a ceremony at the NATO headquarters in Brussels attended by the foreign ministers of the member countries of the Alliance, has been possible after the ratification of the Finnish candidacy by Turkey, last country to give its approval.
While Finland will complete its path to the Alliance on Tuesday, Sweden, which applied for membership at the same time, is still waiting to receive the go-ahead from Hungary and Turkey.