The Foreign Ministers (EMA) of the European Union (EU) meet this Friday in Stockholm, Sweden, to discuss the support that will be given to Ukraine from now on and diplomatic tensions with China.
Portugal will be represented by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Francisco André, as Minister João Gomes Cravinho will participate in the 14th Luso-Moroccan high-level meeting that will take place today in Lisbon.
The first topic to be discussed at the meeting is the support that has been given to Ukraine since the start of the war and what is planned for the coming months.
At the last European Council, in March, the 27 member states of the community bloc agreed to make 1,000 million euros available for the joint acquisition of artillery ammunition, through the European Peace Support Mechanism.
Portugal was one of the first countries to announce its participation in the joint purchase of large-caliber projectiles, specifically 155-millimeter shells, which are used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
In recent weeks, the European Commission has presented a mechanism to encourage investment in the ammunition production industry, amounting to €500 million, to modernize existing factories and with the unprecedented possibility of using cohesion funds and Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRP) to develop this sector of the Defense industry.
The EU has promised to send 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine in the next 12 months.
The diplomacy portfolio leaders will later discuss the rising tensions with Beijing.
China is being accused by the EU and the United States of maintaining an ambiguous position in relation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and even today there are doubts about whether Beijing intends to supply arms to Moscow.
China presents itself as a neutral partner in the conflict, despite its close relations with Moscow.
At the end of April, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, had a telephone conversation, the first since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Brussels has been attentive to Beijing’s movements in recent months and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who visited the Asian country in April, has insisted that rethinking relations with China must be a priority for the 27 .
The leader of the community executive has insisted that it is necessary to gradually break with the dependence that the EU has on China, while Beijing tries to strengthen commercial ties, taking advantage of the uncertainty surrounding the international geopolitical situation.
In 2022, China was the EU’s third largest partner in exports and the largest in imports.
At the end of the day in Stockholm, at 7:00 p.m. local time (6:00 p.m. in Lisbon), a press conference is scheduled with the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell.
Source: TSF
