On Friday 12 May, the Foreign Affairs Ministers will meet in Stockholm for an informal meeting (Gymnich) to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the EU’s relations with China.
As at every meeting since February 2022, the ministers will discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They may discuss military support to Ukraine as the Commission has just presented the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (see EUROPE 12174/1) and the Ukrainians are calling for urgent ammunition and modern equipment.
On Thursday 11 May, at the European Security and Defence Summit, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, called on Europeans to provide more ammunition and missiles to Kyiv. He said that 400,000 rounds of ammunition have already been sent to Ukraine since the beginning of the war.
According to Mr Borrell, the postponement of the major counter-offensive, announced by the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, is probably due to the fact that Ukraine needs more preparation, more weapons and to build capacity. “It is us who have to provide it”, he said, recalling that European military aid to Ukraine now totalled €16 billion. The EU’s CSDP mission has also already trained 17,000 soldiers.
“Russia has already lost the war, Ukraine has still not won it”, Mr Borrell said, explaining that Russia was suffering a military defeat and that it was necessary to continue to help Kyiv.
EU diplomatic chiefs may also consider the 11th package of sanctions against Russia, which is being discussed at ambassadorial level. This package focuses on the fight against sanction circumvention (see EUROPE 13177/13).
Accountability could also be addressed. On Tuesday 9 May in Kyiv, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, expressed her support for the creation of a specialised tribunal for the crime of aggression, adding that the EU was setting up an International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine within the Joint Investigation Team on Ukraine in order to collect, store and analyse all evidence related to the crime of aggression, with a view to possible trials.
Member States are divided over the form the war crimes tribunal should take, either an international tribunal - desired by Ukraine - or an institutionalised tribunal that would be a Ukrainian court with international experts, judges and prosecutors.
The Gymnich may also discuss Ukraine’s EU accession process. On 9 May, Mr Zelensky called for the opening of accession negotiations (see EUROPE 13178/18). While the Commission is due to present an oral report on Ukraine’s progress in June, the formal report, which could pave the way for a decision, will not be published until the autumn.
Redefining relations with China
Also on the agenda of the ministerial meeting, bilateral relations with China will be discussed in the afternoon. The priority for the Swedish Presidency is to remain united and foster solidarity between the Member States and to find a strategic balance with a partner that is developing on the global economic stage, without compromising trade relations with that partner.
Asked about this matter at the European Defence and Security Summit on Thursday 11 May, Josep Borrell said that the discussions at the informal meeting would focus on how to consider “redefining our relationship with China”, which he sees as both a competitor and a partner in trade.
“Every day we trade $2.7 billion worth of goods and services with China. It is a very important partner. We have too many interconnections, so it is unthinkable to consider decoupling”, he explained.
The Foreign Affairs Ministers will therefore discuss this complex relationship and also the situation in Taiwan, although no conclusions will be adopted on the security and defence of the island. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant and Pauline Denys)