Albares: The EU has the “capacity, will and instruments” to take charge of its own security outside the US

Eduardo González The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, insisted this Monday on the need to maintain “the unity of Europeans” to defend European security and guarantee a “fair and lasting peace in Ukraine” and assured, in the face of the new course of the United States in this matter, that the European Union has “the capacity, the will and the instruments” to “take into hand” its own security and its own destiny. “There is a new North American administration that makes proposals about Ukraine and about the rest of its allies” that affect security and “European values,” declared Albares during an interview with Onda Cero. The interview took place just hours before European leaders meet in Paris to discuss the latest developments in Ukraine following US President Donald Trump's decision to begin negotiations with Russia to end the war, without involving the EU or the Ukrainian government. According to the minister, “the quickest way to achieve true peace is to help a sovereign, democratically elected state to defend itself so that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is convinced that a war of aggression will never have a reward,” because “a war of aggression cannot have a reward, we cannot encourage others to launch a war of aggression.” The objective of the Paris meeting (which will be attended by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez), explained Albares, is “to demonstrate the unity of Europeans in these crucial moments for European security”, to address “what we Europeans must do from now on to guarantee that there will be a fair and lasting peace in Ukraine as soon as possible” and, thirdly, “to analyse and decide what we Europeans need to be able to achieve this fair peace to continue helping Ukraine to win peace, and for European security and protection of our citizens as well”. According to Albares, “Europeans and North Americans have built together a world order to confront the forces of the extreme right that wanted to annihilate Europe and its democratic values”. However, he specified, “Europeans have the capacity, the will and the instruments to take our own security and our own destiny into their own hands”. In any case, Albares assured that, at this time, “no one is considering sending troops to Ukraine, because peace is still very far away”. "I don't see peace on the horizon, although one of the considerations is how to help that peace come about as soon as possible. The day that peace is proposed, we have to see what kind of peace we are talking about," he added.

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