Germany to Participate in Ukraine Peace Talks, Says Merz

Vācija piedalīsies sarunās, un tas ir pilnīgi skaidrs, Diena ziņoja.

European representatives held separate meetings with the Ukrainian delegation in Abu Dhabi this week but did not participate in United States-led sessions between Kyiv and Moscow, according to Diena. That split left open the question of who will represent Europe in negotiations with Russia. US envoy Jared Kushner aicināja ES “noteikt vienu personu, kas tās vārdā runātu” šajā sarunās, TVNET reported.

US envoy Jared Kushner stated on Thursday that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is ready to accept European involvement in the process, Diena reported. However, Moscow announced on Thursday that it had not yet agreed to let Europeans join the US-led talks to end the war in Ukraine.

“Germany will certainly be there, that is completely clear,” Friedrich Merz said during the informal EU leaders’ summit in Dublin. Merz expects the same group of European representatives who were present in Abu Dhabi—delegates from Germany, France, Great Britain, the European Union, and NATO—to participate. “Mēs, protams, arī turpināsim pārstāvēt kopējās Eiropas intereses,” teica Mercs.

Dublin Security Summit

More than 50 world leaders gathered in Ireland’s capital on Thursday for the ninth summit of the European Political Community to discuss European security and support for Ukraine, lsm.lv reported.

Andris Kulbergs, arriving at the summit, called the absence of an EU representative in the initial talks abnormal. “It’s not normal in any way,” Kulbergs told nra.lv.

Kulbergs emphasized that Europe will be the entity ensuring long-term peace, making it unacceptable to negotiate the future without European presence, nra.lv reported. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cautioned that when the US and Russia discuss security architecture, they are talking about a new security system between Europe and Russia rather than just security guarantees for Ukraine, lsm.lv noted.

Kulbergs expressed concern that the broader security discussions serve primarily to distract European leaders from supporting Ukraine, according to LSM.

“Es personīgi uzskatu, ka tas ir veids, kā uzmanību novirzīt nost no jautājuma par to, kā mums vajag atbalstīt Ukrainu, un aizņemt mūsu prātus ar nevajadzīgu lieku manevru,” Kulbergs sacīja. Meanwhile, Mihals insisted ahead of the summit that the EU already has designated representatives for these talks, TVNET reported.

“I would say that we have already agreed on these persons,” Mihals told AFP, according to TVNET, pointing to European Council President António Costa and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas.

Diplomatic Divisions Continue

EU member states remain divided on the representation question following the two-day Abu Dhabi meetings, TVNET reported. Kallas urged leaders in Dublin to respect existing EU rules under which she, Costa, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen represent the bloc in foreign policy and security matters, Diena reported.

Merz noted growing readiness on the Russian side to acknowledge that Europe cannot be discussed without Europe, lsm.lv reported.

“With a certain satisfaction, I can note that on the Russian side there is apparently an increasing readiness to admit that one cannot talk about Europe without Europe,” Merz told LSM.