<h6><b>Eduardo González</b></h6> <h4><strong>The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, assured this Monday in Brussels that Spain is “in favour” of analysing the proposal of the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, to promote a new fund to provide Ukraine with more defensive capabilities this year.</strong></h4> In statements to the media before entering the Foreign Affairs Council (CAE), José Manuel Albares warned that the peace that is negotiated for Ukraine - after the decision of the American and Russian presidents, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, to start peace talks without Ukraine or the EU - “cannot have a prize for the aggressor” and demanded that “the democratically elected Government of Ukraine!” and the European countries participate in these negotiations, because “everything that we are and everything that we Europeans believe in is at stake”. According to Albares, Spain is “in favour” of analysing Kaja Kallas’ proposal to promote a new fund to provide Ukraine with more artillery ammunition, air defences and to resupply the Ukrainian brigades this year in view of the peace negotiations. The proposal was presented at the CAE and, according to Kallas’ statement at the subsequent press conference, there is “broad support” within the European Union. However, she specified that the proposal will be taken to the leaders of the 27 at the extraordinary summit on 6 March. The High Representative did not specify “specific figures”. European sources quoted by Europa Press have indicated that the package would be between 6,000 million and 35,000 million euros. In any case, Albares again ruled out the possibility of opening a debate on the deployment of a peace force because, “unfortunately”, there is still a conflict in Ukraine. “Hopefully one day we will be able to talk about a peace mission, but we are not there yet,” he warned. “These are times when we Europeans have to analyse what the future of Europe is and at this time we are faced with challenges that we have to face” and, therefore, “I am going to ask that we also reflect on the way in which Europe should increase its security capabilities,” he declared. These capabilities, he continued, “must include the capacity to have rapid deployment forces that can even be the embryo of a European army that we have talked about so many times.” To this end, Albares proposed - in the same line as Pedro Sánchez and the Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo - the mobilisation of “sufficient financial resources that are European and that do not only rest on national budgets” to reinforce the defence of the EU, “because the threat is European and therefore the response has to be European.
