Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, floated the idea of a ministerial-level meeting in late September to discuss peace possibilities to end the war in Ukraine, Politico reported on Tuesday, August 22nd.
The foreign policy chief didn’t specify the details and only said that officials were “working on” a “high-level gathering” that will “probably take place” in September.
According to an unnamed EU official close to Politico, Borrel was referring to a planned meeting of political directors on the sidelines of September’s UN General Assembly in New York, which he would like to upgrade to ministerial level.
It could become a similar conference to the one that took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, earlier this month. The Jeddah talks were attended by the representatives of 42 countries, including the U.S., China, and India, whose primary objective was to agree on key principles that could serve as the basis of future peace in Ukraine.
The conference, however, ended without a joint statement, but the participants agreed on continuing the effort and at least one follow-up meeting in the near future—which might be the one Borrell mentioned.
The goal of such a meeting, similar to the one in Jeddah, would be “to get the international community to put pressure on Russia to stop the war,” the High Representative said on Monday. “Only Russia can stop it, Russia started it and Russia has to end it.”
While talking about peace, Borrell also welcomed the Dutch and Danish announcements to supply F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine (after the lengthy training phase is over) and even said the EU will likely co-finance the deliveries.
Since touching on the subject of arms delivery, Borrell took a stab at the West’s apparent hesitation to send state-of-the-art, decisive weapons to Ukraine, such as modern tanks, long-range missiles, and fighter jets. “Had decisions been taken faster and with more anticipation on some of the weapons systems which we ended up sending,” Borrell said, “then probably the war would have taken a different path and in any case we would have saved lives.”
