Eduardo González
The position of the EU regarding Russia and the tensions between the Baltic States and the government of Vladimir Putin were the main topics of yesterday’s official visit of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to Estonia, the first stage of a tour that will also include Latvia and Lithuania.
The head of the Executive was received yesterday in Tallinn by the Estonian Prime Minister, Kaja Kallas, with whom he held a bilateral meeting and an extended working meeting with their respective teams, followed by a joint appearance before the media. The day concluded with a dinner hosted by Kallas in honor of Sánchez at the Arvo Pärt Centre, a building constructed by Spanish architects Fuensanta Nieto and Enrique Sobejano.
The visit to Tallinn will conclude today with meetings with the Estonian President, Kersti Kaljulaid, and the Speaker of Parliament, Jüri Ratas. President Kaljulaid paid an official visit to Madrid on March 8, on the occasion of the centenary of diplomatic relations. In addition, the country has a contingent of Spanish troops integrated in the NATO Center of Excellence in Cyber Defense, of which Spain is not only a founding member, but is also at the head of the Operations Command.
During the press conference, the two heads of government had to answer several questions related to Russia, after at the European Council on June 25 European Union leaders failed to reach an agreement on the format of the dialogue with Moscow on matters of common interest. “The fundamental thing is for the EU to stand united on Russia,” Pedro Sánchez warned. “In all the discussions in the European Council, the common denominator of all member states” has been the need to maintain “the same strategy of the 27 states regarding the relationship, rather than dialogue, with Russia,” he continued.
That relationship, he warned, should be based on “two dimensions: a forceful and resilient response to any attack by Russia on international law, human rights and our democracies, and opening spaces for dialogue on global issues that affect us all, such as climate”. “The coordinates and conditions for dialogue are set and agreed unanimously by the European Council as a whole, because unanimity is essential as far as Russia is concerned,” added the President of the Government. In any case, he assured, “the Baltic countries and Estonia have our full solidarity and support with regard to Russia”.
For her part, Kaja Kallas said that her country supports the EU’s relationship with Russia “as before” as long as it conforms to “the agreed conditions and the five general principles” contained in the new strategy towards Moscow presented by EU High Representative Josep Borrell, among which are the full implementation of the Minsk peace agreements for Ukraine, selective dialogue with Russia on matters of EU interest and people-to-people contacts to support Russian civil society. “Russia has taken certain steps in Ukraine or Georgia and, therefore, the EU has to have a response at the highest level and its relations have to meet those conditions: implementation of the five points and collaboration in various areas, such as climate,” she added.
In parallel with Borrell’s new strategy, France and Germany presented a proposal in the Council to resume contacts at the highest level with the Kremlin, which was received with divided opinions. Among the most reluctant to the Franco-German proposal are precisely the Baltic states (as well as Poland), which are particularly sensitive with regard to Moscow because of the significant presence of Russian-speakers in their own countries and the increased presence of the Russian army on their eastern borders of Kaliningrad.
