On Thursday 30 April, EU High Representative, Kaja Kallas, announced that relations between the EU and Russia would be on the agenda of the informal meeting of foreign affairs ministers in Limassol (Cyprus), on 27 and 28 May.
There is a point “we all here agree on: there can be no return to ‘business as usual’ with Russia, even after Moscow ends this war in Ukraine. Next month, in Cyprus, EU foreign affairs ministers will continue the conversation about our approach to Russia, and how best to defend our security interests”, she explained at the end of the meeting of the foreign ministers of the northern and Baltic countries (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden) in Kuressaare (Estonia).
According to Ms Kallas, the meeting in Cyprus will be an opportunity to present the Nordic and Baltic countries’ view of the situation and their demands of Russia “after this war is over so that we can see that Russia does not pose a threat to any of these countries or Europe as a whole”. “Before talking to them, we should really agree what we want to talk them about”, she said.
According to the High Representative, any dialogue, if it is resumed, must not be carried out in a haphazard manner, even though the Commission has acknowledged that Russia will have to be spoken to at some point, and France and Italy have shown themselves to be more open to a resumption of dialogue (see EUROPE 13784/2). “So far (...) Russia does not want to engage in any kind of dialogue. We should not humiliate ourselves by being the demanders (of contact) - ‘please, we beg you to talk to us’ - but we should put them in a position where they actually go from pretending to negotiate to actually negotiate”, she explained. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)