2023-06-01 15:28:37
Swiss President Alain Berset met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Moldova. The handshake took place following the official group photo.
We did not know at first what MM. Berset and Zelensky had spoken. On the occasion of this European Summit of Heads of State and Government, the Ukrainian President wants to request Patriot defense missiles and combat aircraft. Switzerland does not currently authorize the export of war material to crisis regions.
Mr. Berset stressed to journalists the proximity of the summit, which takes place in Bulboaca, in the suburbs of the Moldovan capital Chisinau, from the Ukrainian border. This is only 20 kilometers from the summit location. This proximity is a sign of solidarity with Ukraine, declared Alain Berset.
But it is also “a very strong signal of support for Moldova. Because the situation is also difficult for Chisinau”, he added.
Like a challenge
Nearly 50 European leaders have gathered for this summit, challenging Russian President Vladimir Putin in a Moldova that also lives in fear of Russia.
Participants send a message of support to Ukraine and Moldova, as another airstrike hit kyiv early Thursday morning, killing at least three people including a child.
At the same time, Moscow claimed that Ukrainian forces had tried to “invade” the Russian region of Belgorod and carried out heavy strikes which left eleven injured, notably in the border town of Chebekino.
The Ukrainian President took advantage of the platform offered by this second meeting of the CPE to plead forcefully in favor of his country’s accession to NATO and the EU.
The EPC Summit “is a clear expression of our unity, strength and determination to act together as one (…) one European family (…) to deter aggression and consolidate peace on the continent,” said Moldovan President Maia Sandu, who is also knocking on the door of the European Union.
As in its first edition in Prague in October, the summit, organized at Mimi Castle, a wine estate in the village of Bulboaca, gave rise to a “family photo”, this time with a notable absentee, the Turkish president Recep Tayyp Erdogan, re-elected on Sunday and who did not make the trip.
strong symbol
Taken in this village near Transdniestria, a pro-Russian separatist region of 300,000 inhabitants in the east of the country, the photo is a strong symbol of Putin’s isolation on the continent.
A much larger gathering than the EU (20 countries were invited in addition to the 27 members of the bloc), the CPE, imagined by French President Emmanuel Macron, brings together states with very different profiles and backgrounds: Armenia, Georgia, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, Serbia, Azerbaijan…
“Putin’s Russia has excluded itself from this community by launching this war once morest Ukraine”, underlined the head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell.
“I hope that the presence of so many leaders here, very close to Ukraine, will send a strong message of the unity of many States, not only of the European Union, to defend the international order”, a- he added.
Discussions on Kosovo and Armenia
The CPE is also the occasion for some bilateral discussions or in restricted formats between leaders.
It might help lower tensions in northern Kosovo, where violence erupted last weekend between Serb demonstrators and police, leaving 30 NATO soldiers deployed there injured.
In addition, the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders, in full negotiation to end their conflict, were to meet under the aegis of Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz and the President of the European Council Charles Michel.
Yerevan and Baku have been battling for decades for control of the Azerbaijani region of Nagorny Karabakh populated mainly by Armenians.
This article has been published automatically. Source: ats
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