Foreign affairs ministers will meet in Luxembourg on Monday 22 April to discuss, once again, the situation in Ukraine and the Middle East, a few days after their leaders (see EUROPE 13393/1, 13393/2), but also Sudan.
Ukraine. Foreign ministers, joined by their defence colleagues, will discuss Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and ways of supporting Kyiv, following an informal exchange of views via video conference with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, and Defence Minister, Rustem Umerov.
The discussion is expected to focus on military support for Ukraine, which is under heavy air attack and losing ground on the front line. For several weeks now, Kyiv has been calling for more missile defence and additional ammunition (see other news).
On Tuesday 16 April, the EU High Representative, Josep Borrell, hoped that the Member States would make “firm and concrete” commitments in this regard, explaining that Ukraine’s air defence needed to be accelerated and strengthened. Several Member States have Patriot batteries, but, according to sources, they have to strike a difficult balance between sending systems to Ukraine and ensuring their own protection. According to a European source, no announcement is expected from the meeting.
The ministers are also expected to discuss the state of readiness of the European defence industry, following the presentation by the Commission and the High Representative of the European Defence Industry Strategy and Programme (EDIS and EDIP) and ahead of the EU-Ukraine Defence Industrial Forum on 6 May in Brussels.
The ministers may also discuss the EU’s security commitments to Ukraine, including the EU Military Assistance Mission in support of Ukraine (EUMAM), which is expected to have trained 60,000 soldiers by the summer.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister is expected to inform his counterparts of his country’s position on the 8th tranche of aid for Ukraine from the ‘European Peace Facility’, which has been blocked for months by Budapest.
The Council may also discuss the 14th package of sanctions against Russia and the “Peace Conference”, scheduled for 15 June in Switzerland.
Middle East. Less than a week after their extraordinary meeting via videoconference following Iran’s drone and missile attacks on Israel and the discussion on the subject by European leaders, the ministers will be discussing the situation in the Middle East over lunch.
At the request of their leaders, they are expected to discuss new sanctions against Iran in the area of drones and missiles. On his arrival at the G7 on 18 April, the EU High Representative said that the EU’s sanctions regime on the export of drone and missile components to Iran needed to be reviewed “in order to enlarge it and make it more efficient”. He stressed the importance of implementing the regime.
Mr Borrell also explained that the EU’s regime against Iran for supplying drones to Russia could be extended to Iran’s proxies who are sending missiles into the Red Sea, but also from Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. “This is the geographical dimension and - let’s say - the industrial dimension of our restrictive measures”, he explained.
According to several European sources, a consensus could be reached on Monday on extending the sanctions regime on Iranian drones, but the timeframe is too short for formal adoption. In a statement issued on Friday 19 April, the G7 foreign ministers warned that they would hold the Iranian government accountable for its malicious and destabilising actions. They stress: “[...]we stand ready to adopt further sanctions or take other measures, now and in response to further destabilising initiatives” (see the statement: https://aeur.eu/f/bvr ).
The ministers are expected to discuss ways of avoiding an escalation of tensions in the region. The Council may consider Israel’s response to the Iranian attack, with strikes on Iran on 19 April. It could also revisit the arrest and seizure by Iran, in violation of international law, of the Portuguese-flagged merchant ship MSC Aries, near the Strait of Hormuz.
The ministers will also look once again at the situation in Gaza. “We will try to refocus our attention on Gaza”, explained a senior European official, referring to the situation on the ground.
The situation in the Middle East will also be discussed at the end of the Council, at a joint meeting between European ministers and ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
Sudan. In the early afternoon, the European foreign affairs ministers will discuss the situation in Sudan, which is increasingly being described by international organisations as “the largest humanitarian crisis” in the world today. It is estimated that the conflict has created more than 8 million refugees.
The country has been torn apart by devastating clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). On Monday 15 April, just one year after the outbreak of hostilities, the international community, meeting in Paris for an extraordinary international conference, pledged more than €2 billion in humanitarian aid (see EUROPE 13391/2).
The ministers are now expected to examine ways in which the EU can encourage the parties in the conflict to enter into ceasefire negotiations. The impact of the conflict in Sudan is also expected to be analysed from a geopolitical point of view, particularly with regard to tensions in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and the role of the main sponsors of the conflict in the region.
“We won’t be talking about resolving the crisis between the warring parties” a European diplomat told Agence Europe on Friday, saying that the discussions could focus mainly on ways of creating the conditions for dialogue between Sudanese civil society actors.
Last Monday, Josep Borrell called for greater coordination in mediation in order to establish a peace process, stressing the important influence of foreign powers in the region (see EUROPE 13391/2). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant and Bernard Denuit)