Will there be an EU-Russia summit after all?

At the summit between US President Biden and Russia’s Putin, the EU was only a guest on the fence. So will Russia policy be made in Washington in future? Chancellor Merkel and France’s Macron want to prevent this – they are calling for a separate EU-Russia summit.

This is reported by the “Financial Times”. On Friday, Macron and Merkel had met and spoken out in favour of a new dialogue with Russia. However, there was no talk of a summit meeting yet.

Now Merkel and Macron want to warm up their counterparts to the idea. The proposal could be discussed at the EU summit on Thursday, according to Brussels.

However, it is unlikely to arouse great enthusiasm. Poland and the Baltic states are not well disposed towards Russia. They want to isolate Putin, not integrate him.

The conflict in Ukraine and the repression in Belarus must serve as justification. The hardliners hope to hit Putin with new economic sanctions against dictator Lukashenko.

On the other hand, it would be strange if the USA came to an agreement with Russia, but the EU was left out in the cold. After the Biden-Putin meeting, a window of opportunity for constructive talks has opened up.

It is not likely to be too big, so the EU should not hesitate for too long – even if its foreign affairs envoy Borrell sees little chance of a rapprochement…

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) The original post (in German) is here