2023-05-11 12:27:09
While the Ukrainian army continues to wait for promised aid and Volodimir Zelensky warns that the counter-offensive will be delayed longer than expected, the allies are waiting to see how events unfold to see if a new phase can be moved on. The only option they see in the EU for there to be a negotiation is for Ukraine to maintain a position of strength. Even so, it is a scenario that they still see as difficult. That is why the premise is to continue supporting that country from the economic, humanitarian and, above all, military point of view. And the message sent by the high representative of the EU is that you have to endure the pressure.
Brussels targets Chinese companies in its new round of sanctions over the war in Ukraine
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“Putin believes that democracies are weak, that people are getting tired (…) and that they will end up marrying the war effort and we have to show that this is not the case and that we will support Ukraine for as long as it takes,” he said. the Vice President of the European Commission at a forum on security and defense.
Borrell has defended that the “diplomatic battle” is as important as the military one to try to remove numerous leaders from the “strategic ambiguity” regarding the war given that a large part of the world -in Latin American or African countries- does not share the US or EU strategy. “Putin cannot win this war,” Borrell has reiterated: “The world has to understand what is happening.”
“We have to explain to people, get more involved and tell them what is happening. I am seeing world leaders in strategic ambiguity. I call them the ‘yes but’ people, there is no but: there is an invasion. One country is invading another without justification ”, she highlighted.
The war has largely changed the paradigm in which the EU operated, which has been forced to strengthen its military industry, which had been in the background for decades. Now the European Commission intends to inject 500 million euros to boost the acceleration of the production of defense material to send to Ukraine if necessary and to refill the arsenals that have been running out in the last 14 months. Borrell has quantified at 70,000 million euros in the next three years the spending that the member states plan to make to increase defense capabilities.
Borrell has also insisted that diplomatic work has to try to convince China to use its “influence” in Russia to end the war. “We have no interest in pushing Russia into the arms of China”, he has said about the relationship between those countries. However, he considers that in Beijing “they are not very comfortable” with what is happening and has suggested that it is Putin who has the most to lose. “It is an unbalanced couple”, he said before recalling that Russia accounts for 1% of world GDP compared to 20% that China represents.
When the EU began to prepare the eleventh package of sanctions, Borrell assured that China is not a “substitute” for the 27 in economic terms. The high representative is convinced that stopping buying Russian gas is a blow to the Kremlin’s finances.
That package is challenging, however, as it is intended to include Chinese tech companies that are serving Putin to make war materiel. Foreign Minister Qin Gang said that if that happens, China will react “strictly and severely.”
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