The Diplomat
Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares assured yesterday that Spain, the EU and NATO are ready to “invest all political capital” to prevent armed conflict in Ukraine, but warned that “de-escalation can only come from one side, from the Russian side,” whose military deployment “does not respond to any threat against Russia’s security on this border.”
“It is never too late for the path of dialogue,” Albares declared in the course of a joint press conference with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Wopke Hoekstra, with whom he held a bilateral meeting at the Palacio de Viana in Madrid.
“Of course, on the part of Spain, the European Union and NATO we are going to explore the ways of dialogue and to invest all the political capital” to “defuse the situation” and to favor “dialogue, because that is the way to peace” and because, “without minimizing in any way the enormous tension that exists at the moment on the border with Ukraine, war is not inevitable,” the minister assured. “The path of diplomacy is still open and, although it is probably a narrow path, we must work to widen it,” Albares insisted.
“Until the last moment we have to plug the avenues of war, as much as we can,” because “de-escalation is necessary on the border with Ukraine,” but “what cannot be done is to dialogue permanently under pressure,” the minister warned. “De-escalation can only come from one side, from the Russian side,” which has moved “130,000 Russian troops, with all the equipment that goes with them,” to the Ukrainian border, a military deployment that “does not respond to any threat against Russia’s security on this border,” he added.
In the same sense, Hoekstra affirmed that “diplomacy is the best trump card”, but warned that the solution of the conflict “also depends on the other party”, because “the one that has taken 150,000 soldiers to its border with Ukraine has been Russia, when they should be in their barracks”. Also, the Dutch minister announced that his government is evaluating Ukraine’s request for the supply of arms and war material. “It is a decision that we hope to bring to the Parliament by the end of this week,” he specified.
During the bilateral meeting, the two ministers stressed the importance of cooperation between the EU and NATO in the Ukrainian crisis and discussed the upcoming Alliance Summit, to be held in Madrid in June, as well as the Spanish EU Presidency next year, energy, ecological transition and recovery after COVID. On the bilateral level, the two heads of diplomacy discussed political, economic and cultural issues. “Netherlands looks forward to continue working together with Spain on a strong and secure Europe,” Hoekstra stated via his Twitter account.
