Good to see everybody,
We have a Gymnich meeting coming up with the Foreign Ministers today.
First, of course, everybody will discuss the Leipzig attacks, and also it is clear that it has all the hallmarks of state-sponsored terrorism. The question is, what do we do about this? We have already summoned Russian ambassadors, so have also many Member States, and we will discuss what more can we do.
We have already in the pipeline 1,600 listings for the military complex of Russia, and maybe there are more to be added. Of course, this is not something that we are deciding today, as it is an informal meeting. But we will definitely discuss this.
Then, Ukraine. We have our friends here as well from different countries, also Ukraine [is] joining us. It is clear that we need to coordinate what more can we do in this situation where Russia is escalating and really killing civilians and causing as much harm as they can. The discussions [will be about], how we can actually put more pressure on Russia so that they would end this war.
Then we will talk about our internal issues, European foreign policy as such – how we can be more effective in this regard? Of course, it all stems down to the question of unity versus unanimity, which means that this is the basic problem that we have: how to reach unity, to use the treaties, everything that we have in the treaties already. Because I think, in this geopolitical context, we have to be more agile, and we have to really be able to react to situations that are upcoming.
Also, we will discuss our work in the multilateral fora,: how we can better coordinate in terms of the work there, so that we would speak with one voice, and we would also go behind one European candidate. Because if you look at the multilateral organisations, Europe is paying a lot for the costs of these organisations, but we are not maybe always represented the same way. So, there is plenty to discuss there.
And then, finally, we also have Middle East. There we will focus on freedom of navigation, not only the Strait of Hormuz but also the Red Sea.
There we have two operations. What more can we do also together with the Saudi-led multinational team there. So, what more can we do in this regard.
And these are of course also the discussions about what is happening in the West Bank. What is our common approach there. You know the situation so far, but we will discuss where we are united.
So that is a pretty full day.
Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/media/video/I-293171