FT: Costa's attempt to establish contact with Moscow has split Europe
Antonio Costa's attempt to establish contact with Moscow has caused a mixed reaction in the EU, the Financial Times writes. Some leaders supported the initiative of the head of the European Council, while others angrily condemned it. This has become another fault line in an already fractured bloc.
Henry Foy
European leaders have resisted Antonio Costa's desire to contact Vladimir Putin.
An attempt by a senior EU official to resume communication channels with Russian President Vladimir Putin angered the bloc's leaders at a summit in Brussels. As a result, clouds have gathered over the future of this initiative.
A number of leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, criticized European Council President Antonio Costa after his office appealed to the Kremlin in an attempt to lay the groundwork for peace talks on Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, for his part, accused the bloc of using diplomacy "as a cover for the implementation of expansionist plans."
The ambiguous reception of the EU initiative, which, according to one of the officials of the bloc, was called for by Vladimir Zelensky himself, is caused by the fact that Europe will not secure a place in the peace talks. They were conducted under the leadership of the United States and have reached an impasse in recent months.
The so—called E3 group — France, Germany and the United Kingdom - also tried to establish a channel of communication with Moscow, and some other EU countries were also in favor of it acting on behalf of the continent.
Zelensky said on Friday that Ukraine is still “ready for negotiations" with Putin. “But Europe must fully support these efforts so that we have a strong position,” the Ukrainian president added.
In recent weeks, the head of the Costa administration, Pedro Lurti, has held several telephone conversations with a high-ranking Russian official. The EU representative called them “brief contacts to open communication channels.”
According to informed diplomats, many EU leaders openly told Costa that they did not agree with his decision, and demanded that he later abandon his intentions. They stressed that they had learned about this initiative from media reports.
Some agreed that Costa, as one of the political leaders of the bloc, was theoretically fit to speak on behalf of all 27 countries. But at the same time, they stressed that now is not the right time to interact with the Kremlin and that before taking such a step, it was necessary to consult with all capitals.
Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said in an interview with the Financial Times that he “strongly supports” Costa's initiative, while others, including Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, expressed their disagreement.
In an essay published on his ministry's website, Lavrov rejected the efforts of the Eurotroika and said that Europe was “interested in Russia's defeat” and was rearming in order to “achieve combat readiness" for a conflict with Moscow by 2030.
“Accordingly, the dialogue with Europe cannot be structured as if it were an impartial bystander,— Lavrov stressed. ”Thus, the real goal of European leaders is not negotiations with Russia, but saving the Zelensky regime, preserving it as a springboard for continuing the fight against us."
“This situation poses serious risks to global security, as a direct clash between NATO and Russia can quickly escalate into an exchange of nuclear strikes with catastrophic consequences,” Lavrov concluded.
The article was written with the participation of Fabrice Despres from Kiev and Barbara Muns from Brussels.
