(Munich) Russia is endangering Europe’s security with “Cold War-era demands”, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock lamented on Friday ahead of the annual Munich security conference which will be dominated by the Ukrainian crisis.
Posted yesterday at 11:23 p.m.
“With an unprecedented deployment of troops on the border with Ukraine and demands dating from the Cold War, Russia is challenging the fundamental principles of the European peace order,” said Mr.me Baerbock in a statement.
Moscow must demonstrate “serious de-escalation efforts”, she urged.
International leaders and high-ranking diplomats are meeting in Munich, in southern Germany, from Friday to Sunday, for three days of discussions on defense and security issues.
This annual conference comes at the height of tensions between Moscow and the West, the latter fearing that Russian troops are preparing to invade Ukraine.
Meetings in different formats will follow one another in Munich, where US Vice-President Kamala Harris, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are expected to attend. , NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Russia, whose Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has regularly come to this annual conference, has not planned to participate this year. Mme Baerbock sees in this absence a lost “opportunity”.
“It is precisely in the current, extremely threatening situation that it would have been so important to also meet Russian representatives,” she said.
“Message of Unity”
The head of German diplomacy will chair a meeting of her G7 counterparts on Ukraine on Saturday in Munich.
These discussions between Germany, France, Great Britain, the United States, Japan, Canada and Italy will send “a message of unity”, according to Mr.me Baerbock, whose country currently holds the presidency of the group of seven allied countries.
“We are ready for a serious dialogue on security for all. Even small steps towards peace are better than big steps towards war. But we also need serious de-escalation measures from Russia,” she added.
“Declarations of willingness to dialogue must be backed by real offers of dialogue. Declarations of troop withdrawals must be accompanied by verifiable withdrawals,” the minister stressed.
US President Joe Biden on Thursday judged “very high” and imminent the risk of a Russian attack on Ukraine, sweeping away recent assurances from Moscow on a partial withdrawal of its forces positioned for weeks on the Ukrainian border.