'EU is weak!' Former diplomat turns on Brussels and tells Putin to ignore bloc's threats
VLADIMIR
Putin has been told to ignore the European Union completely in favour
of direct talks with individual member states by a former diplomat who
dismissed the bloc as "weak".
Andrew Neil reacts to Meghan Markle’s book on This Morning
This video file cannot be played.(Error Code: 232001)
Sign up to receive our rundown of the day's top stories direct to your inbox
When
you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these
newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other
related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Sebastien
Cochard, a former senior adviser to the European Parliament and G20
Presidencies, was speaking at a time of heightened tensions between the
EU and Russia,
not least over Ukraine, where large numbers of tanks and troops massed
at the borders prompted fears of an imminent invasion. Prior to that,
top diplomat Josep Borrell’s
ill-fated trip to Moscow dealt a blow to the bloc’s credibility after
he was forced to stand by awkwardly which Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed the EU as an “unreliable partner”.
The EU’s various institutions wanted "to look like the victims," Mr Cochard added.
Vladimir Putin has been urged to "ignore" the EU (Image: GETTY)
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Union (Image: GETTY)
Referring
to EU sanctions against Russia, he claimed they were a "suicidal game
where absolutely everyone loses,” adding: "Our unnatural division serves
the United States and China."
He warned: "EU
sanctions, which occasionally induce consistently reasonable Russian
counter-sanctions, are causing irreversible damage to the economic
relationship between EU member states and Russia.
“The
EU institutions and some of its member states continuously allow
themselves unbearable and unwarranted interference in Russian internal
affairs."
Urging
Mr Putin to "stop paying attention to the Brussels cacophony”, he said
Russia’s President should instead attempt to engage directly with for
example the French, German or Italian governments.
He added: "We hope that France will make a reasonable and independent voice heard.
“The relationship with Russia is a major historical and geostrategic issue for all Europeans.
'Formidable' Royal Navy 'strike group' ready to react should tensions against Russia erupt
THE
UK's "formidable" Carrier Strike Group is ready to act against China
and Russia should boiling tensions erupt into war, a military chief has
warned.
Russia: Vladimir Putin 'is an opportunist' says Diggins
This video file cannot be played.(Error Code: 232001)
Sign up to receive our rundown of the day's top stories direct to your inbox
When
you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these
newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other
related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Air
Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston spoke as HMS Queen Elizabeth embarked on
its maiden deployment to the South China Sea at the weekend. The
£3billion warship has eight RAF and 10 US Marine Corps F35B stealth
fighter jets on board which will take part in Operation Shader to fight
the remnants of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
It
will be accompanied by six Royal Navy ships, a submarine, 14 naval
helicopters and a company of Royal Marines on its trip to Asia.
Once
there it will work alongside NATO nations including the US, Denmark,
France, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway and Poland.
Sir Mike said that the UK Government has "absolute utility" to act on the threat of Russia with the Carrier Strike Group.
And
addressing rising tensions between Xi Jinping’s China and its
neighbours, he said the UK was committed to being a "problem-solving,
burden-sharing nation active on the world stage".
The UK is ready to act against Vladimir Putin if needed (Image: Getty)
Vladimir Putin has been accused of warmongering (Image: Getty)
He added: "Anything is possible and the world is an increasingly unstable place."
Asked
if he expected the stealth fighter jets to be redeployed to combat the
threat of Russia, Sir Mike said: "A couple of wise old admirals I was
chatting to a few weeks ago said to me 'never ever expect a carrier
deployment to go to plan. Something will always come up.'
"That's very clear and valued advice.
"Anything is possible and the world is an increasingly unstable place."
He continued: "The Integrated Review recognised the strategic context is more uncertain, more dynamic and more complex.
"So
the formidable force, the formidable air and maritime force that is the
Carrier Strike Group as a whole, it provides absolute utility to the UK
Government to act should it need to.
"And it brings to life what it means when we talk about the United Kingdom on a global stage."
The
military chief spoke as Russia continues to threaten a tentative peace
in Ukraine and a Chinese minister said the country is "preparing for its
final military assault" on Taiwan.
Russian president Vladimir Putin's actions have alarmed the international community (Image: Getty)
Speaking
about the UK’s interest in Asia, Sir Mike said: "The Integrated Review
which we completed last month identified that we would deepen our focus
on the Indo-Pacific.
"It's a region which is of critical
importance to the United Kingdom - for our economy, for our security,
for the environment, and for our global ambition to support an open and
resilient international order.
"The UK is probably one of the most
globally interconnected countries in the world and we rely on that
international order for our security and for our prosperity.
"So
through the Carrier Group, through all of our activity in the region, we
will amplify our influence with allies and groups of countries, and we
will do that through deeper partnerships and deeper alliances.
"We
will work with a number of different air forces, a number of different
navies as we progress through the deployment and that is to understand
how they work, and they can understand how we work, so we work together.
"And we demonstrate the United Kingdom is a problem-solving, burden-sharing nation active on the world stage."
'Formidable' Royal Navy 'strike group' ready to react should tensions against Russia erupt
THE
UK's "formidable" Carrier Strike Group is ready to act against China
and Russia should boiling tensions erupt into war, a military chief has
warned.
Russia: Vladimir Putin 'is an opportunist' says Diggins
This video file cannot be played.(Error Code: 232001)
Sign up to receive our rundown of the day's top stories direct to your inbox
When
you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these
newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other
related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Air
Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston spoke as HMS Queen Elizabeth embarked on
its maiden deployment to the South China Sea at the weekend. The
£3billion warship has eight RAF and 10 US Marine Corps F35B stealth
fighter jets on board which will take part in Operation Shader to fight
the remnants of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
It
will be accompanied by six Royal Navy ships, a submarine, 14 naval
helicopters and a company of Royal Marines on its trip to Asia.
Once
there it will work alongside NATO nations including the US, Denmark,
France, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway and Poland.
Sir Mike said that the UK Government has "absolute utility" to act on the threat of Russia with the Carrier Strike Group.
And
addressing rising tensions between Xi Jinping’s China and its
neighbours, he said the UK was committed to being a "problem-solving,
burden-sharing nation active on the world stage".
The UK is ready to act against Vladimir Putin if needed (Image: Getty)
Vladimir Putin has been accused of warmongering (Image: Getty)
He added: "Anything is possible and the world is an increasingly unstable place."
Asked
if he expected the stealth fighter jets to be redeployed to combat the
threat of Russia, Sir Mike said: "A couple of wise old admirals I was
chatting to a few weeks ago said to me 'never ever expect a carrier
deployment to go to plan. Something will always come up.'
"That's very clear and valued advice.
"Anything is possible and the world is an increasingly unstable place."
He continued: "The Integrated Review recognised the strategic context is more uncertain, more dynamic and more complex.
"So
the formidable force, the formidable air and maritime force that is the
Carrier Strike Group as a whole, it provides absolute utility to the UK
Government to act should it need to.
"And it brings to life what it means when we talk about the United Kingdom on a global stage."
The
military chief spoke as Russia continues to threaten a tentative peace
in Ukraine and a Chinese minister said the country is "preparing for its
final military assault" on Taiwan.
Russian president Vladimir Putin's actions have alarmed the international community (Image: Getty)
Speaking
about the UK’s interest in Asia, Sir Mike said: "The Integrated Review
which we completed last month identified that we would deepen our focus
on the Indo-Pacific.
"It's a region which is of critical
importance to the United Kingdom - for our economy, for our security,
for the environment, and for our global ambition to support an open and
resilient international order.
"The UK is probably one of the most
globally interconnected countries in the world and we rely on that
international order for our security and for our prosperity.
"So
through the Carrier Group, through all of our activity in the region, we
will amplify our influence with allies and groups of countries, and we
will do that through deeper partnerships and deeper alliances.
"We
will work with a number of different air forces, a number of different
navies as we progress through the deployment and that is to understand
how they work, and they can understand how we work, so we work together.
"And we demonstrate the United Kingdom is a problem-solving, burden-sharing nation active on the world stage."
Putin's poodle! Germany will not support NATO in any future wars with Russia - expert
A
leading Western analyst has suggested that Germany would never take
military action against Russia, even if Vladimir Putin decided to invade
European Nato allies.
Russia: Vladimir Putin 'is an opportunist' says Diggins
This video file cannot be played.(Error Code: 232001)
Sign up to receive our rundown of the day's top stories direct to your inbox
When
you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these
newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other
related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time.
He
argued that Berlin's growing dependency on Russian gas and coronavirus
vaccines makes it less likely that Germany would be willing to confront Putin.
Wolfgang Münchau, head of the think tank Eurointelligence, believes
that the next potential flashpoint between Moscow and the West could be a
65km long strip of flat land along the Polish-Lithuanian border, known
as the Suwalki Gap. In the north-south direction it separates the
Russian enclave of Kaliningrad from Belarus, while in its east-west
direction it forms the only land connection between the Baltic States
and the rest of the EU via Poland.
Given
that the Russian President and his Belarus counterpart Aleksandr
Lukashenko are in talks about a political union, Mr Münchau suggested
that Mr Putin might be tempted in the near future to initiate a land
grab to both physically reconnect the Kaliningrad enclave with Belarus
and cut the Baltic States off from the rest of Europe.
Writing for
eurointelligence.com, the associate editor of the Financial Times
observed that European history is littered with examples of
authoritarian leaders using artificially engineered incidents as
pretexts for military invasions.
He said: "One of the lessons of European history is that corridors are bloody dangerous.
"When
we heard Vladimir Putin accusing the west of staging a military coup in
Belarus to topple Lukashenko, we listened up because European land
grabs are usually preceded by fake allegations and staged incidents."
Germany would never take military action against Russia (Image: Getty)
Does Putin have other European conquests in his sights? (Image: Getty)
He added: "Putin is actively cultivating stories of a western plot to assassinate Lukashenko."
Mr
Münchau believes it is not unrealistic to foresee a situation where
events lead to a military confrontation in the wider
Polish-Lithuanian-Belarus border area.
And he confidently predicts that should that happen, Germany would play no part in repelling a Russian attack.
He
wrote: "I see no chance whatsoever that Germany would ever participate
in military action against Russia - even if Russia invaded the Baltic
Republics.
"Just consider the words of
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German president, who said Germany owed the
Nord Steam 2 pipeline to Russia to atone for its sins during the second
world war.
"He once described Nato exercises in the Suwalki gap as sabre-rattling."
Mr Münchau concluded: "I see no majorities in German politics for any form of military action."
Lithuania,
Latvia and Estonia gained their independence after the fall of the
Soviet Union in 1991, before then going on to join both the EU and NATO.
However, Moscow has always considered the Baltics as an area of key strategic importance to its security and national interests.
Both
Estonia and Latvia have sizeable Russian minorities living in their
countries, and in the past Mr Putin has not hidden his desire to reunite
all Russian-speaking peoples with the Russian Federation.
In an
interview in 2015, the Russian supremo said: “Do you think it’s normal
that 25 million Russian people were ‘abroad’ all of a sudden?
"Russia was the biggest divided nation in the world. It’s not a problem? Well, maybe not for you. But it’s a problem for me.”
