For Annalena Baerbock, Brussels is the last stop on her five-day inaugural tour as Foreign Minister. On Monday, the Foreign Affairs Council, the monthly meeting of EU foreign ministers, is on the agenda. She used the evening before for a long conversation with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who received her in the Berlaymont building, the seat of the Commission. The two know each other from times together in the Bundestag and are by yourself. Even if they belong to different generations, they share similar experiences that they had as women on their way to top positions in foreign and security policy.
The topics of the confidential conversation were the same as those that determine the debates of the 27 EU heads of department on Monday on the other side of the Rue de la Loi and before that the meeting of the G7 foreign ministers in Liverpool. The crisis surrounding the Russian troop deployment on the border with Ukraine and the question of how to deal with it dominate. Before Baerbock enters the meeting room and poses for photos with France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and other new colleagues, she explains to journalists that she wants to work for a more powerful European foreign policy. “A strong Europe must not allow itself to be weakened by unanimity on foreign policy issues,” warns the Greens in accordance with the coalition agreement of the German government, which wants to abolish the existing right of veto for every EU member in foreign policy. One should not be satisfied with the “sum of the lowest common denominator”, says Baerbock.
EU wants close coordination with the USA and Great Britain
Baerbock is impressively demonstrated how far the positions and rhetoric often differ on key issues: while the Lithuanian Gabrielius Landsbergis is convinced that “Russia is preparing a comprehensive war against Ukraine” and of an “unprecedented event – probably since the second World War “speaks, the Austrian Alexander Schallenberg calls after his brief interlude as Federal Chancellor” a disarmament of words and deeds on both sides. ” The foreign representative Josep Borrell has meanwhile announced that the EU will coordinate any economic sanctions as closely as possible with the USA and Great Britain.
Concrete decisions on measures to prevent President Vladimir Putin from taking military action or even invading Ukraine were not expected. In advance, it was stressed several times in Brussels that one was preparing to act quickly. In 2014, after Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, the EU members reacted quickly, emphasizes a high-ranking diplomat: “The last time it took only 72 hours to pass the most serious financial sanctions in the history of the EU.”
Russia, on the other hand, appears unimpressed by the warnings from the West. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov threatened military measures on Monday if the US and NATO fail to provide security guarantees: Moscow is demanding that the military alliance should not expand further east or deploy weapons systems near the Russian border. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg immediately rejected this request.
As is the case every month, the agenda for Annalena Baerbock’s first ministerial meeting is overly full: Before the informal lunch with Qatar’s foreign minister on Afghanistan, the focus is on EU relations with African countries and the tense situation in Cyprus; then about the crises in Belarus and Ethiopia. The foreign ministers are imposing sanctions on eight members of the Russian mercenary group “Wagner”, which is active in Ukraine, Libya, Syria and the Central African Republic. These are no longer allowed to enter the EU, and any accounts will be frozen. Three Russian energy companies are also banned from trading in the EU – they are to be seen as Wagner’s front companies. The Kremlin denies any relationship with this mercenary group, whose head is the billionaire and Putin confidante Yevgeny Prigozhin. He is already on the EU’s sanctions list for disregarding the arms embargo against Libya.
Before her return flight, Baerbock called the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina “worrying” and the efforts to split off by Serb leader Milorad Dodik “unacceptable”. That is why she has campaigned for the existing sanctions regime to be used now “against Mr. Dodik”.
Since she was sworn in, she has met more foreign ministers than seen employees in her own house, Baerbock joked on the trip. Getting to know the ministry is what she wants to concentrate on until Christmas. Not without paying a visit to the Stockholm Nuclear Disarmament Initiative in Sweden’s capital this Tuesday – the subject is important to them.