Tensions between Russia and Ukraine are unsurprisingly on the menu this year at the Munich Security Conference, which brings together the main officials of world diplomacy each year. It opened its work yesterday Friday when the situation in eastern Ukraine is particularly explosive. An informal meeting of the G7 is also being held in Munich this Saturday on the sidelines of the conference.
Speeches and interviews follow one another on the platform of the Munich security conference and the same firmness is displayed with regard to Russia, absent from the forum for the first time in thirty years, while calling on Moscow for dialogue.
” Ukraine is the shield of Europe »
Among the last to speak in the afternoon was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who had still made the trip to Munich despite Joe Biden’s warning the night before. ” For eight years, Ukraine has been a shield. For eight years, Ukraine has retained one of the largest armies in the world, which is massed on our borders and not on those of the EU, launched the Ukrainian leader. He urged Westerners to stop their policy ” appeasement vis-à-vis Moscow and to increase their military aid to Kiev. Above all, he also demanded a “ clear schedule about his country’s possible membership in NATO, while Moscow urges the West never to accept Kiev within the Atlantic Alliance, and to withdraw their troops from Eastern Europe.
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Emmanuel Macron spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart who said he did not want to “respond to provocations along the line of contact”, according to the Elysée. Volodymyr Zelensky “entrusted him with telling Vladimir Putin Ukraine’s availability for dialogue”, underlined the French presidency. The French president is to have another meeting with his Russian counterpart on Sunday morning.
Parade at the Munich Grandstand
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Saturday he had sent a letter to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to initiate a dialogue within the NATO-Russia Council in order to avoid a conflict in Ukraine. He also expressed concern that he had seen no sign of Russian withdrawal from Ukraine’s borders. ” We are extremely worried because we see that (the Russian troops) continue to strengthen, continue to prepare. And we have never seen in Europe since the end of the Cold War such a concentration of combat-ready troops “, did he declare.
As expected, Kamala Harris, the American vice-president, reiterated the very firm position that we heard from the United States, both in the voice of Antony Bliken, but also of Joe Biden. US Vice President Kamala Harris has threatened a build-up of NATO forces in Eastern Europe if Russia attacks Ukraine, in addition to ‘severe and swift’ economic sanctions against Moscow. ” We will not stop at economic measures. We will further strengthen our NATO allies on the eastern flank she said in her speech at the Munich Security Conference.
Same tone from the President of the European Commission and the German Chancellor. Russia seeks to rewrite the rules of the international order », Accused Ursula von der Leyen, while her compatriot Olaf Scholz declared « ridiculous “Russian accusations of” genocide in the Donbass.
Informal meeting of the G7
Alternately, since Friday, the Westerners present at the security conference in Munich have taken the floor to show their unity, their resolution in the event of a Russian attack against Ukraine and also by calling for a de-escalation and a opening of the dialogue, reports our correspondent in Berlin, Pascal Thibault.
Germany, which currently chairs the G7, also organized this Saturday in Munich – on the sidelines of the security conference – a meeting of G7 foreign ministers. The German Foreign Minister distanced herself from the United States’ conviction that a Russian attack in Ukraine is imminent, calling for “not to assume” Moscow’s decisions. “ In crisis situations, the worst is to assume or try to guess “what will happen, declared Annalena Baerbock, at the end of the G7 meeting, judging” important to take a closer look » the situation on the ground.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who spoke with his German counterpart, reiterated the firm position of the United States, referring to the provocations of Russia, a scenario which consists of setting up false provocations, to find a pretext on arrival to be able to attack Ukraine.
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In opening the conference yesterday, the Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres considered that it would be catastrophic if the crisis between Russia and Ukraine degenerated into war. Then, Annalena Baerbock, the head of German diplomacy, spoke of an unacceptable threat and considered that this crisis was not a Ukrainian crisis, but a Russian crisis, also calling for dialogue. We also saw the mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, make a very vibrant appeal for solidarity and support from Westerners.
(and with agencies)