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It is not enough for US President Donald Trump to maintain contacts with Russia...
As pressure mounts on Europe to appoint a special envoy for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has sharply criticized the EU for not using its diplomatic influence to help end Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In an interview with public broadcaster WDR, Merkel stated that Europe should use its diplomatic potential more.
"I think the military support we have provided so far is absolutely the right thing to do. I also think it is right that we do much more to create a deterrent effect beyond our support for Ukraine. What I regret is that, in my opinion, Europe is not using its diplomatic potential sufficiently. It is not enough for US President Donald Trump to maintain contacts with Russia ," Merkel said during an interview with public broadcaster WDR.
Both Moscow and Kiev have signaled openness to such a mediator at a time when Trump's negotiating team is focused squarely on the US-Israeli war with Iran.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday that appointing a negotiator speaking on behalf of the entire bloc “is not currently planned,” adding that discussions on the issue were continuing at the European level, as well as in a smaller format with France and the United Kingdom. He also warned against false hopes.
" Above all, we hope that we can strengthen Moscow's willingness to sit at the negotiating table. As long as the Russian government is ready to negotiate, we do not need to make any decisions on our part regarding representation ," Merz said in response to a journalist's question during a press conference with his Bulgarian counterpart in Berlin.
Merkel, who served as German chancellor from 2005 to 2021, said she had proposed creating a diplomatic format between the EU and Russia during her final European Council meeting in October 2021 at the end of her term, four months before Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine began. But she added that this had failed due to differing opinions within the bloc on how best to deal with Moscow.
"You have to keep working on this until you reach a common position. Diplomacy has always been the other side of the coin, even during the Cold War ," she said of these differences.
Merkel's legacy has come under scrutiny in recent years due to Germany's growing dependence on Russian gas during her term, with criticism mounting since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.
But her past experience in negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has led to Merkel's name being floated as one of the possible candidates to become the EU's peace envoy to help resolve the conflict.
However, Merkel said her office had not received any official request to that effect. The center-right politician also stressed that she believed that only those in power are credible negotiators, citing her experiences with Putin after the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.
"We were only able to hold those negotiations with President Putin because we had political power, because we were the heads of government. You need that power. And I, personally, would never have thought of asking a mediator to go to Minsk for me and talk to Putin... You have to take this into your own hands ," Merkel said.
The Minsk agreements, brokered by Merkel and her French counterpart in 2014 and 2015 to halt fighting in eastern Ukraine, failed to secure a lasting ceasefire. Violations continued for years before Russia launched its own all-out war.
E kam thene i pari qe kjo qelbesire ka qene dashnorja e Putinit, qe ne kohen e Gjermanise Lindore e rekrutuar nga KGB. Cfare bisedimesh mund te behen me derrin sllav qe thote, do ndalem ne Portugali ne breg te Atlantikut? E lidhi per gryke Gjermanine me Rusine e sot Europa po vuan injorancen "largpamese" te nje mesusese shkolle.