L’European Union does not want to give in to threats. Thursday, January 13, Josep Borell estimated that the Russian military movements on the Russian border “are part of the pressure” that Moscow wants to put on Europe and the United States. Consequently, declared the head of European diplomacy during a trip to Brest, it is out of the question to “negotiate under pressure”.
Josep Borell also assured that “coordination with the Americans is absolutely perfect”, adding that the latter gave him “the assurance that nothing will be decided or negotiated without the Europeans”. Such statements were made before the start of an informal meeting between European defense ministers, which will focus in particular on the Ukrainian crisis.
“There will be no decisions today, because it is an informal meeting, but there will be political expression,” he said. “We are going to work out the position of the European Union, decide how we should deal with the crisis,” he said.
Defense ministers will be joined at the end of the morning by EU foreign ministers. The meeting is organized in Brittany, a region from which the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian is from. The head of European diplomacy, who was in contact the day before with Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra, who tested positive for Covid, reassured him about his health.
“I passed the rigorous tests. I am not positive. We can start working, ”he announced.
Belgian Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmès, who was also in contact with her Dutch counterpart, also tested negative, but she preferred to cancel her visit to Brest. Ms. Wilmès was hospitalized and placed in intensive care in October 2020 after being infected with the virus.
