(First name Foreign Minister corrected in the 1st paragraph: Alexander)
BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – The Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg has warned against a one-sided focus on Ukraine in the conflict with Russia. “You have to send a signal to the Ukraine: you are part of Europe, you have to be anchored in the European family. But please don’t allow us to have geostrategic tunnel vision,” said the politician from the Austrian People’s Party on Deutschlandfunk. This Friday, the EU Commission intends to make a recommendation as to whether Ukraine will be given the status of a candidate country after the Russian invasion. The EU heads of state and government will discuss this next week.
Schallenberg called on the other EU countries to send clear signals to countries such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Albania at the summit. “In geostrategic terms, at this summit that is coming, we shouldn’t splurge, we should splurge, take responsibility and acknowledge that Russia unfortunately has God’s potential for destabilization – not only in eastern Europe, but also in the south-east.” Albania and North Macedonia are already candidate countries. Bosnia-Herzegovina is also aiming to join the EU, but does not yet have candidate status.
The CDU foreign affairs expert Norbert Rttgen described the backing for Ukraine’s EU accession as insufficient in view of a Russian “war of destruction”. In the ZDF “Morgenmagazin” he said that Ukraine needed weapons to survive. “And Germany is refusing them. That is the policy of the federal government.” During the visit of Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj described German arms deliveries as very helpful.
SPD leader Saskia Esken dampened expectations that Ukraine would be granted candidate status immediately. “I believe that the Federal Chancellor and the three partners who traveled with him did not say that this accession candidate status would be granted immediately, but that Ukraine could set off,” Esken told SWR. lkl/seb/DP/jha