Brussels, 18 May (LaPresse) – Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged EU leaders to negotiate directly with the Kremlin to end the war in Ukraine, whilst ruling out her own candidacy as the EU’s special envoy for the negotiations. Merkel, who negotiated the so-called Minsk II agreements in 2015 – which subsequently failed – stated that only current EU leaders would be ‘taken seriously’ by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I regret the fact that, in my view, Europe is not making sufficient use of its diplomatic potential,” she said on Monday in Berlin, as reported by Euractiv. The former chancellor, who had a tense but essentially functional relationship with the Russian leader during her sixteen years at the helm of Germany, insisted, the publication writes, on the need to keep diplomatic channels open. ‘Military deterrence plus diplomatic activity,’ she said. ‘That is what I consider important,’ she added. Her comments, Euractiv notes, come amid speculation that she could act as an EU special envoy to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has now been ongoing for four years.
Ukraine, Merkel: ‘Europe is not making full use of its diplomatic potential’
Brussels, 18 May (LaPresse) – Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged EU leaders to negotiate directly with the Kremlin to end the war in Ukraine, whilst ruling out her own candidacy as the EU’s special envoy for the negotiations. Merkel, who negotiated the so-called Minsk II agreements in 2015 – which subsequently failed – stated that only current EU leaders would be ‘taken seriously’ by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I regret the fact that, in my view, Europe is not making sufficient use of its diplomatic potential,” she said on Monday in Berlin, as reported by Euractiv. The former chancellor, who had a tense but essentially functional relationship with the Russian leader during her sixteen years at the helm of Germany, insisted, the publication writes, on the need to keep diplomatic channels open. ‘Military deterrence plus diplomatic activity,’ she said. ‘That is what I consider important,’ she added. Her comments, Euractiv notes, come amid speculation that she could act as an EU special envoy to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has now been ongoing for four years.
