The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, warned yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos that if Russia won the war in Ukraine, “everyone will be less safe because its big neighbor might want to do the same.”
“It doesn’t matter what continent you are on, it affects you. If Russia wins this war, everyone will be less safe because its big neighbor might want to do the same,” the minister declared during the Ukraine’s Horizons round table, in which Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff of Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky, also participated.
Furthermore, he continued, the war is having “collateral effects” and, therefore, an “impact on countries that are very far from Ukraine”, as has happened with the supply of grain. For this reason, he warned, “what is at stake in Ukraine is not only the sovereignty and independence” of the country, but “much more.” “We thought that it was very clear to everyone that this was a war in Europe, but it was not a European war, but rather it affects the entire world because it affects the principles of the United Nations Charter,” he added.
Albares also defended Ukraine’s accession process to the EU, which must run parallel to the country’s reconstruction process. It is an “enormous challenge” because “Ukraine is a country at war” and, if reconstruction is not properly planned, “it will never be able to meet the criteria” for entry into the Union, he warned.
