Finnish President Alexander Stubb has raised the prospect of engaging with Moscow, citing the bloc\u2019s growing policy divisions with Washington<\/p>\n
The EU should be ready to resume dialogue with Russia if US policy on the Ukraine conflict no longer aligns with the bloc\u2019s interests, Finnish President Alexander Stubb has said.\u00a0
\nThe remarks, made in an interview with the Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat and published on Tuesday, come after four years during which Brussels has largely refused to engage in direct talks with Moscow.\u00a0
\nAsked whether it is riskier not to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin than to resume contacts, Stubb replied that \u201cat some point\u201d the EU would need to reopen diplomatic channels. He said the decision would \u201clikely depend\u201d on whether Washington\u2019s current approach to Russia and the Ukraine conflict aligns with the EU\u2019s priorities.\u00a0
\n\u201cIf the answer is that it may not, then we are probably getting close to the moment when some European leader should, in a coordinated way, engage with President Putin,\u201d Stubb said, adding that discussion on the matter have taken place \u201cfor the past two years.\u201d\u00a0
\nThe Finnish president also said that US policy toward Russia differs from that of the EU, noting that the bloc views Russia as \u201cthe biggest security threat.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Moscow has consistently dismissed Western claims that it poses a threat, calling them \u201cnonsense\u201d and \u201cfearmongering\u201d used to justify rising military spending, including the EU\u2019s \u20ac800 billion \u201cReArm Europe\u201d plan and NATO members\u2019 pledge to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP. \u00a0
\nCalls within the EU to resume dialogue with Moscow have been growing. Last month, Estonian President Alar Karis said the bloc should be ready for talks if the Ukraine conflict ends \u201cquite suddenly,\u201d while other European leaders have urged renewed engagement after the bloc was largely sidelined from peace efforts initiated by US President Donald Trump.
\nKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Moscow has never rejected direct contact with Western leaders and \u201cthey can just call President Putin.\u201d However, the discussion must have a clear purpose and not devolve into a PR stunt with one side lecturing the other, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Finnish President Alexander Stubb has raised the prospect of engaging with Moscow, citing the bloc\u2019s growing policy divisions with Washington The EU should be ready to resume dialogue with Russia…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t