The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, insisted this Thursday before the Security Council of the United Nations (UN) that the Russian aggression against Ukraine must fail and “international law prevail”.
“We need to make sure that the aggression fails and that international law prevails,” Borrell told members of the UN’s highest body before emphasizing that “the Ukrainian people deserve peace, but not just any peace.”
In a regular meeting dedicated to cooperation between the UN and the European Union (EU), the Spanish diplomat added that “a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, and the first and most obvious steps towards peace are the aggressors who stop their attacks and withdraw their forces from Ukraine”.
“Until then, the European Union will continue to give Ukraine all the support it needs to defend its population,” Borrell added, going against the statements of the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peter Szijarto, who defended almost simultaneously, dozens of meters, in front of the UN General Assembly, the cessation of hostilities without preconditions.
“Neither the delivery of arms nor the sanctions (on Russia) save lives. On the contrary, they contribute to escalating and prolonging the conflict and bring more suffering,” the Hungarian politician said at a special session of the General Assembly where a resolution will be sought. voted for an end to hostilities in Ukraine.
Borrell also urged the international community to revitalize the UN and the multilateral system, “threatened like never before”, at a time when we are witnessing the “proliferation of conflicts, the climate crisis, systematic attacks on democracy and human rights and the deepening of global inequalities”.
“Problems are increasing and our collective ability to find solutions is diminishing,” said Borrell, who also defended the importance of taking action.
In addition, he criticized what he described as “the too narrow nationalist agendas of many countries”, without giving names, but which he considered one of the main obstacles to the development of multilateralism.
In a 25-minute speech, Borrell also referred to other problems, crises and conflicts such as terrorism, the climate crisis, the situation in the Sahel or Afghanistan, human rights violations or the recent devastating earthquakes in Syria and Turkey.
“We remain committed to all human rights, individual and collective, civil, political, economic, social and cultural,” said the head of European diplomacy, who concluded his speech by assuring: “Apart from the war in Ukraine, we remain committed to many crisis, with a lot of people all over the world, and we do everything we can to improve the peace and security situation.
At Borrell’s words, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, accused the European Union of “Russophobia” and criticized the delivery of arms to kyiv.
“When historians describe the years 2022 to 2023, in the chapter dedicated to the European Union, the most frequently used words will probably be degradation, impotence, myopia and Russophobia,” Nebenzya said.
“Last year we learned a lot about the true essence of European diplomacy. We learned, for example, that the fight for peace of European diplomats boils down to increasing arms deliveries to a conflict zone,” said the Russian diplomat, adding that the European Union has become “an obedient tool of the Americans.”
Source: TSF
