© Reuters
– German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz before the start of the EU summit in Brussels. Kurz expressed strong support for the German-French initiative to organize a meeting between the EU and Russian President Vladimir Putin
France and Germany on Thursday called for a European Union summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but met strong opposition from Poland and the Baltic states, which do not trust the Kremlin.
French President Emmanuel Macron said such a meeting, the first since 2014, would be a chance to resume dialogue with the EU’s largest neighbor.
“We need a dialogue to protect our interests. (…) This is a dialogue necessary for the stability of the European continent,” Macron said, arriving for the EU leadership meeting in Brussels.
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France and Germany on Wednesday suggested holding a summit with Putin as a way to restore relations with Russia, citing talks between US President Joe Biden and the Russian head of state in Geneva a week ago.
“We, as the European Union, must also seek direct contact with Russia and the Russian president,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, adding that the EU should create its own forum for dialogue, not rely on the United States to talk to Putin.
However, following NATO warnings that Russia was trying to divide Western democracies through disinformation and covert attacks, many EU countries said a leadership meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin would be premature.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said such talks would only be possible if Russia renounced its “aggressive policy” towards its neighbors.
According to him, Moscow and Brussels must first reduce tensions in their relations before discussing whether a high-level dialogue is possible.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaya Kallas commented that at their last meeting in May, European leaders agreed that Russia posed a “major threat to the EU” and would be curious as to what arguments were currently being sought to renew dialogue with the Kremlin.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda described the German-French initiative as “trying to lure a bear to keep a pot of honey”.
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“We have to be extremely careful, it’s not like Russia’s relations with the United States,” Nauseda said.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte also said he would not take part in such talks. According to an international investigation, the Russian military fired a missile that shot down a Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine, killing more than 200 Dutch citizens.
While France is a nuclear power, the EU relies on NATO for its territorial defense and makes decisions between 27 countries, making it easier for the Kremlin to use divisions.
The Kremlin welcomed the idea of a summit, saying both Brussels and Moscow needed dialogue, although Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he would wait for more details.
“What is it about? What is the agenda? We also do not know whether all other EU members support this,” Lavrov said, according to the RIA news agency.
The last EU-Russia summit was in January 2014, shortly before Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine.
The EU subsequently froze summits with Putin, but his policy meandered between imposing sanctions and allowing the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to be completed, Reuters reports.
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