The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General will join the European Council meeting to “share views” on the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine, António Guterres himself said on Thursday.
Guterres arrived accompanied by the President of the Council, Charles Michel, at 10:50 am local time (09:50 am in Lisbon) and considered that his participation in today’s meeting in Brussels (Belgium) “confirmed the excellent cooperation between the European Union [EU] and the United Nations”.
“The Russian invasion is causing enormous suffering and has a huge impact worldwide. Let’s take the opportunity to share visions,” said António Guterres.
The UN Secretary-General warned of a “perfect storm” in “many countries” as evidenced by the deterioration of key indicators of quality of life: “More hunger, more poverty, less education, less health services.”
“We are close to the breaking point”dramatized.
For his part, the President of the European Council congratulated Guterres for his “personal leadership, particularly in the Black Sea Grains Initiative”, which has already enabled the export of more than 23 million Ukrainian grains and helped contain the increase of raw material prices.
Michel stressed that the United Nations and the EU “have a lot in common”.
“We believe in the multilateral approach, the spirit of cooperation, the Charter of the United Nations and international law”he emphasized in statements at the entrance to the European summit.
At the Council meeting, EU leaders and Guterres will “have the opportunity to discuss some of the challenges of our time, such as the war Russia has started against Ukraine”, as well as climate change and development aid.
António Guterres is expected to take advantage of the moment to address sanctions against Russia and especially Belarus due to the global impact that could result from blocking fertilizer exports.
According to POLITICO, which has consulted diplomatic sources, Lithuania is making it difficult to “get an agreement” that would allow the export of fertilizers from Belarus. In 2021, a Ryanair flight bound for Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, was diverted to arrest Roman Protasevich, opponent of Aleksandr Lukashenko’s regime.
Lithuania and other countries such as Polynia have pushed for tougher sanctions against Minsk and Moscow as the most effective way to end the conflict in Ukraine.
Source: DN
