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EU Pushes to Join Ukraine Peace Talks 11/13 06:04
European nations are seeking an envoy to represent them in talks on ending
the Russia-Ukraine war, concerned that a U.S.-backed process will leave them
sidelined and Kyiv vulnerable as Moscow and Washington decide the fate of a
conflict that has roiled the continent.
DUBLIN (AP) -- European nations are seeking an envoy to represent them in
talks on ending the Russia-Ukraine war, concerned that a U.S.-backed process
will leave them sidelined and Kyiv vulnerable as Moscow and Washington decide
the fate of a conflict that has roiled the continent.
Whether Europe should be represented by one person or a team -- and who
should take on the role -- is being debated Friday as leaders from the
27-nation European Union meet at a summit in Dublin. Senior EU officials and
politicians have been suggested, but there is no consensus yet.
What the job might entail is also unclear and contested. But there is broad
agreement by governments from the U.K. to Ukraine on the need for Europe to
join the ongoing negotiations involving Moscow, Kyiv and Washington.
"This needs to be resolved," Irish Prime Minister Michel Martin said as he
arrived at the summit.
"I would hope that today's discussions bring clarity around this," he said.
"It needs to be, in my view, finally decided upon within the next week or two."
Ukraine is eager for support from its European allies. It's reluctant to
leave the talks solely in the hands of a U.S. administration that has often
seemed to lean toward Moscow's views. Russia does not want European countries
involved in direct negotiations, complaining they are financing and supplying
Ukraine's military effort.
European leaders also distrust U.S. President Donald Trump to negotiate on
their behalf after a series of tense standoffs over trade, Greenland and
conflicts in Iran and Ukraine.
"Without Europeans, there is no support for Ukraine," French President
Emmanuel Macron said at a meeting of the European Political Community in Dublin
on Thursday. "There is no more U.S. support."
"At the end of the day, we will be the ones to define and decide for our
future security as Europeans," he said.
Europe is broadly aligned but not unified
European leaders fear Russian President Vladimir Putin will press Trump to
back a peace settlement that weakens not just Ukraine but broader European
security. Putin has demanded NATO troops be pulled back from Russia's borders
and that no European forces be deployed in Ukraine.
As envoys from Washington, Moscow and Kyiv met in Abu Dhabi, several
European countries, including the U.K., France and Germany, attended
discussions nearby.
U.S. envoy Jared Kushner and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said
after they met in Dublin late Thursday that Europe would be part of the next
round of talks. Zelenskyy said Europe would send a negotiating team, adding,
"They will have a voice."
"We cannot conclude this deal without the Europeans being at the table,"
Kushner said. He said Putin "is willing to give it a try."
Supporters of a single envoy, like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni,
argue that the absence of a united European voice has allowed individual
countries or small groups to engage in freelance diplomacy.
"There are too many different groupings discussing the issue," she said.
Meloni has criticized a series of seemingly uncoordinated initiatives,
including an October call to Putin by Finnish President Alexander Stubb and
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, that she said could undermine
European interests.
Martin said that European representation at the negotiations "can't just be
European Union" because the Coalition of the Willing -- a group of over two
dozen countries that have pledged military support to help maintain a future
peace in Ukraine -- "has involved far more than the European Union."
"It's a European continentwide issue," he said, pointing to Norway and the
U.K.'s support for Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that for Europe to join
peace talks, it first must name a representative. "The Europeans squabble like
spiders in a jar."
An old question with no clear answer
The question of who represents Europe is an old one. Europe itself is
loosely defined. Is it the 27-nation EU, the 32-nation NATO military alliance
made up mostly of European countries, the 29-nation Schengen zone, or the
47-nation European Political Community?
That has frustrated Washington in the past and present.
After this week's U.S.-brokered talks between Ukraine and Russia in the
United Arab Emirates, Kushner said that "if Europe could identify one person to
speak on their behalf, that would be a bigger achievement than getting the
Russians to include them in the negotiation."
That echoes the famous question often misattributed to former U.S. Secretary
of State Henry Kissinger: "Who do I call if I want to call Europe?"
Potential candidates from within the EU
France, Germany and the U.K., the region's top three economies collectively
known as the European trio or E3, have so far been the most engaged European
body in negotiations. But while London is deeply involved with Ukraine, the
U.K. left the EU in 2020.
But an E3 envoy would leave out the other 25 EU nations and rankle smaller
nations like those that border Russia and Belarus on the bloc's "eastern
flank," which face constant hybrid threats, including influence campaigns and
disruptive drones.
Some back a top EU official for the job. Even inside Brussels, however,
there are two leading contenders: European Council President Antonio Costa and
the EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas.
"European security cannot be discussed without a European voice at the
table," Costa said in Dublin on Thursday. "That European voice needs to be a
team effort between European nations, the European Union and NATO."
But earlier this year, Costa faced criticism within the EU after his office
set up a hush-hush back-channel with Moscow.
The perhaps obvious candidate, however, is Kallas, a former prime minister
of Estonia.
She laid claim to the envoy role Friday, saying "I'm the one who is
representing Europe in the foreign and security policy."
"I know that the Russians don't want me, but, you know, do we have a say,
who is representing Russia?" she said. "We can't send any person that has no
institutional role like the Americans are sending."
Another name that has been floated is Stubb, the Finnish president. He has
warm relations with Trump and met in Oslo with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and
Kushner in October.
But some leaders deeply distrust the U.S.-brokered talks. Polish Prime
Minister Donald Tusk was critical of the negotiations, reflecting the pessimism
of EU countries formerly dominated by the Soviet Union.
"In my opinion, calling them negotiations is an exaggeration," Tusk said
Thursday. "We will not build a new security architecture simply because the
Russian president, or someone in the United States, wishes it."
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