“We should be concerned about what is happening in Africa,” said the EU’s top diplomat.
“When I first arrived in Brussels, the French and the Italians were in Libya. They were not always in agreement, but they were there. Today there are no Europeans left in Libya – only Turks and Russians,” Borrell said.
Speaking at the “Quo Vadis Europa” conference in Santander on Sunday, Borrell said that “the bases on the coast of Libya are no longer European – they belong to Turkey and Russia. This is not the order of the Mediterranean that we had imagined”.
Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, as well as Russia, have recently stepped up their economic and political offer to North African countries and other countries on the continent.
Borrell, whose five-year term as the EU’s top diplomat will end in the coming weeks, has been critical of the EU’s declining diplomatic influence in Africa, as well as the collapse of the bloc’s military missions in the Sahel region.
The former Spanish foreign minister will be replaced by former Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas.
2024-08-27 07:28:29