javier Solana is one of the most respected voices in international politics. After serving in various positions in the four governments of Felipe González, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1992 and from there in December 1995. NATO General SecretariatWhere the Atlantic Alliance negotiated the Founding Act between Russia and Russia. He was also the first high representative of the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union and supported the main lines for creating common defense policies. Joining this Friday with journalist from EL PERIÓDICO Marc Marginedas In a presentation at the Cornellà Creació Forum on international relations that will inevitably address how the war in Russia and Ukraine affects the global chessboard and the balance between the great powers.
Q: The decision to open the doors of the European Union at the Bucharest summit in 2008 NATO What ended up leading to the current conflict for Ukraine and Georgia?
A: I don’t think we’re here for that. You have to go a little further. It is very difficult to understand the situation in Ukraine, if we do not go back to 1991, when the USSR collapsed. At that time, a new nuclear power was born, as most of the USSR’s atomic weapons were in Ukraine. But because it had no desire to become a nuclear power in principle, it reached an agreement in 1994 in which the rest of the nuclear powers – the US, Russia, UK, France and China – agreed to denuclearize itself in return. guarantees its independence, its borders and its protection in case of attack. Today, it seems that one of the signatories of this agreement attacked Ukraine, and the others said nothing. But the announcement of the Bucharest summit was very dramatic for Russia and since then there is a full confrontation with the West and it is growing.
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How would you evaluate Russia’s role in the war?
It is Russia’s failure. A four or five-day operation sought to take over the capital, remove the president, and appoint a president more loyal to Putin. But they failed to do so. Russia shows that it has an army beyond expectations and the war continues.
Under his mandate, NATO intervened in the war in Yugoslavia for the first time to a third country. Do you think it should do it in Ukraine now?
No, the war in the Balkans has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine. What Putin did is unacceptable. However, NATO is not in this conflict, it does not participate in the war because it does not want to face Russia. It could have consequences such as a third world war with nuclear weapons.
You personally dealt with Putin. How far do you want to go in this war?
I do not know well. I treated Putin a lot in the past, but now Russia has changed, it has become a more closed country, a country that does not work well and only has nuclear weapons, gas and oil. Someone said it was a gas station with nuclear weapons. I am doing everything possible so that the war will stop, or at least a ceasefire is imminent. I don’t know if the situation is ripe for a ceasefire without the withdrawal of Russian troops at the moment, but there may be a lasting ceasefire to negotiate a more calmly negotiated settlement with a firm agreement to resolve this issue.
But do you see that Putin is willing to take the negotiating path?
He showed that he wanted to solve it with a gun, but since he couldn’t solve it until now…
What role does China play?
China is dissatisfied with what has happened and an ally too frivolous to do what it says it will do. Xi Jinping has a very important congress in November, where he has hinted that he wants to continue as president, so he is not interested in too much fuss. You should present a calmer situation. Also China has serious problems, because of its determination to want to end the virus, it has closed Shanghai – the most important port in the world – due to covid, while what you have to do is live with it, because it won’t go away completely.
You laid the foundations for the common security and defense of the EU. Do you think the EU should have its own army?
The EU must have the capacity to act militarily. Like a nation’s army, it will not have an Army where soldiers parade behind a flag, but it must have the capacity to do so. The EU was born not as a military power, but as a quest for peace so that there would be no war. He doesn’t believe in war, but there are times when others do and you have to defend yourself. Therefore, it is necessary to have more capabilities than we currently have, and this will lead to a NATO reform, because even though all EU countries are already members of NATO, there are problems in the world that do not require NATO, but that they can. EU. For example, bringing peace to the Sahel in Africa.
Is the world going to block logic like in the Cold War?
I don’t know exactly where the world is going right now. However, I have great concerns because in recent years we have had good economic growth after the 2008 crisis, the world in general has overcome this crisis well, but we are returning to a difficult period. The post-pandemic war, in which many resources were placed by all countries so that the economies would not die, and we had many plans to get out of this new crisis, turned everything upside down. What we need is to solve the world’s serious problems, such as climate change, whose agreements have been disrupted by skyrocketing energy prices. We are in a disordered world and we must try again to put the world in order with institutions that can help with global problems that cannot be solved with one or two countries, everyone should participate.
Source: Informacion
