EU’s Borrell: Europe cannot be left out of Russia-U.S. talks
The EU’s chief fear is no longer that it will be squeezed onto the diplomatic sidelines by the U.S. and China — because it is now more afraid of being squeezed out by the U.S. and Russia.
Washington is leading talks on defusing tensions with Moscow after Russia moved about 100,000 troops to its border with Ukraine and says it wants legally-binding guarantees from the NATO military alliance about its weapons deployment and its eastern expansion.
At a press conference Wednesday as part of a two-day trip to Ukraine, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said “we are no longer in the Yalta times” — a reference to the city in Crimea where the U.S., Russia and Britain held a key summit to determine their spheres of influence after the end of World War II.
“The delimitation of the sphere of influence of the two big powers does not belong to 2021/2022,” Borrell said speaking alongside Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister of Ukraine, which would like to join both NATO and the EU. [Continue reading…]