European Union leaders will meet on Monday, during the EU-Africa summit in Luandato discuss the peace proposal prepared by the USA for Ukraine, said the president of the European Council, António Costa.
“The American proposal for the 28-point plan includes important elements that will be essential for a just and lasting peace”, says Costa, in a Facebook post. “We are prepared to engage to ensure that future peace is sustainable. I invited all 27 EU leaders to a special meeting on Ukraine on the sidelines of the EU-AU Summit in Luanda on Monday.”
It has also been announced that the national security advisers of the E3 countries (informal security alliance formed by France, the United Kingdom and Germany) will meet with officials from the European Union, the United States and Ukraine in Geneva, on Sunday, to discuss the peace plan proposed by Washington for Ukraine, officials said on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg.
A joint statement from European leaders and allied countries, such as Canada and Japan, that the European Council issued at the G20 summit welcomes “the continued efforts of the US to bring peace to Ukraine”, but argues that, although the document contains essential elements, “the initial version is a base that will require additional work.”
“We are ready to engage to ensure that a future peace is sustainable. We are clear on the principle that borders should not be changed by force. We are also concerned about the proposed limitations on the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which would leave the country vulnerable to future attacks. We reiterate that the implementation of elements related to the European Union and NATO will require the consent of EU and NATO members, respectively.” In the same statement, the collective of countries underlines “continuous support for Ukraine”, promising close coordination with Kiev and Washington in the coming days.
At the summit in Johannesburg, French President Emmanuel Macron called for a collective “remobilization” of the G20 around “some priorities”, considering that the group of the world’s largest economies is having difficulty resolving current international crises.
“The G20 may be reaching the end of a cycle (…). We are living at a moment in our geopolitics in which we have great difficulty in resolving, together, around this table, including with members who are not present today, the major international crises”, said Macron, at the opening of the 20th G20 summit, taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa, and which was boycotted by North American President Donald Trump.
The French President added that everyone must “be aware that the G20 is at risk” if they do not mobilize “collectively around some priorities”.
Macron also lamented that the G20 countries have “difficulty in reaching a common standard in the geopolitical space”, be it “the defense of humanitarian law, the sovereignty of peoples, human dignity”.
“There can be no peace in Ukraine without the Ukrainians, without respect for their sovereignty”, he stressed, while Europeans look for a response to the American plan for Ukraine. The French head of state also considered that “there can be no stability in the Near and Middle East until there is an active fight against terrorism, but also respect for the sovereignty of all peoples”he reinforced, also citing the crises in the Great Lakes and Sudan, in Africa. It is “absolutely necessary to show that we have concrete actions to re-mobilize this forum and provide answers to our economies collectively around this table”, insisted the French President.
G20 leaders, meeting at the summit in Johannesburg, called for a “just” and “lasting” peace in Ukraine, as well as in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the “occupied Palestinian territories”. That statement, which does not focus on Ukraine in particular, reads: “Guided by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter in its entirety, we will work for a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the occupied Palestinian territories and Ukraine, as well as to end other conflicts and wars around the world.”
This is the only reference to Ukraine in the 30-page document, although the United States’ peace plan for the Ukrainians has interrupted the summit’s agenda and European leaders are holding numerous consultations to formulate a counterproposal.
G20 leaders further promised to better protect the supply of strategic minerals, essential for the energy transitiongeopolitical and commercial disturbances, according to the statement published by the South African Government.
“We seek to ensure that the strategic minerals value chain can better withstand disruptions, whether arising from geopolitical tensions, unilateral trade measures inconsistent with WTO rules [Organização Mundial do Comércio]pandemics or natural disasters”, they mentioned in the document.
Many countries are redoubling their efforts to guarantee access to these minerals, which are also widely used in electronics and are abundant on the African continent, after dependence on these resources was highlighted by restrictions imposed by China on its exports of rare earth elements.
The G20 summit – which brings together developed and emerging countries – takes place between this Saturday and Sunday in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, which is the group’s rotating president.
Founded in 1999, the G20 is made up of 19 countries – Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States — in addition to two regional organizations: the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU).