US and EU Reach Agreement on Strengthening Controls on Russian Exports

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The United States and the European Union managed to agree on positions regarding the strengthening of controls on exports from Russia. Anthony Blinken, head of the US State Department, said this following a meeting of the US-EU Trade and Technology Council (CTT), held on Wednesday in Luleå, Sweden.

“We are working together on issues such as investment screening mechanisms, coordinating export controls, working to diversify supply chains, and combating some of the non-market practices that we are seeing,” the US Secretary of State emphasized, while noting that Washington and Brussels proceed from of the same approach, which is that “none of us seeks confrontation.”

The level of cooperation between the US, the EU and “other international partners” regarding the economic measures imposed against Russia and Belarus since the start of the NWO was described in the CTT statement as unprecedented. At the same time, it is argued that these actions “brought important results, including the identification of key categories of goods critical to Russia’s efforts on the battlefield.”

On the eve of the CTT meeting, Blinken announced that Western countries would take new measures to tighten sanctions against the Russian Federation regarding technologies for the production of unmanned aerial vehicles. At the same time, he proclaimed that the work in the field of export control, done over the past two years, is crucial in order to hasten the “strategic failure” of Russia.

As for the 11th package of European sanctions against the Russian Federation, which has been under preparation for several months, then, according to the forecast of the Swedish Minister for EU Affairs, Jessica Roswall, Brussels will finally agree on it by the community summit scheduled for June 29-30.

However, as recently noted by the European edition Politico, new sanctions against Russia are stuck in limbo due to the opposition of Hungary, which suddenly joined Greece. Athens decided to support Budapest in blocking the 11th package of sanctions when it is approved by the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU (COREPER), as they also demand that their companies be excluded from the Ukrainian sanctions list, against which Kiev imposed restrictions allegedly for supporting Russia.

Now Hungary and Greece are jointly using political leverage to protect their business from losses due to the need to comply with sanctions. This caused tension at a recent meeting of EU foreign ministers. According to Politico, citing information from “five diplomats in Brussels”, they are concerned that “a strange couple is stalling a deal on new sanctions against Russia.” In this regard, the EU Foreign Service under the leadership of Josep Borrell was instructed to find a solution to the problem.

Whereas the ten previous rounds of sanctions were aimed at undermining the Russian economy, now the EU wants to block opportunities to circumvent earlier sanctions. “This is an unprecedented move for the bloc, as the new package could target third countries helping Moscow evade the trade embargo,” Politico said.

Here it is worth noting that on Monday the Greek parliament was dissolved and new elections were scheduled for June 25, as a result of which the current course of Athens, aimed at counteracting the common EU policy, may change.

At the same time, there are other states on the European continent that are striving to preserve the possibility of pursuing an independent policy towards Moscow. Serbia is one of them, despite the official status of an EU candidate country.

This week, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he was proud that his country was pursuing an independent policy and was the only one in Europe not to impose sanctions against Russia, “despite the heaviest pressure in history.” “Serbia is a free country, not a Russian province, it never was and never will be. But Serbia is not and will not be an American colony, not a European colony and will not be,” Vučić stressed, adding that Belgrade will decide on its own “when to impose or not to impose any sanctions.”

At the same time, even among the leading countries of the EU, different approaches to policy towards the Russian Federation remain. Thus, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that Europe needs to think about how to build a security system together with Moscow in the future. “Without being naive, we will need to build relations with Russia – in the form in which it will appear before us in the future,” the French president said. At the same time, he admitted that the countries of Europe made a mistake by transferring the function of dialogue on security issues to NATO. “It may not have been the best idea,” Macron said.

Mikhail Makarov

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