Boris Johnson reportedly wants to establish a group of like-minded states as an alternative to the EU
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has reportedly suggested that Ukraine join a new alliance, which London is supposedly seeking to establish as a structure parallel to the EU.
Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper ran a report on Thursday claiming that there was a growing rift between Kiev and the EU over the bloc’s response to Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine.
The outlet’s assessment of Kiev-Brussels relations apparently stems from frequent criticisms leveled by senior Ukrainian officials at some EU member states over the amount and extent of military support they are willing to provide to Kiev, as well as the bloc’s inability to impose an embargo on Russian energy imports so far.
According to Corriere della Sera, citing people familiar with the talks, London has been actively working to set up a ‘European Commonwealth’ for more than a month now. Johnson has reportedly been trying to launch an alternative to the EU that would include the UK, Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and possibly Turkey. The new alliance would reportedly welcome nations which value their sovereignty, are proponents of economic liberalism, and are determined to repel the “military threat from Moscow.”
The group would presumably encompass political, economic, and military dimensions.
Sources told the outlet that Johnson first presented this concept to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his surprise visit to Kiev on April 9. Since then, the UK has reportedly been courting Ukraine relentlessly.
The Ukrainian government has so far neither declined nor accepted the offer, the report says.
The paper suggests that Zelensky is waiting for the outcome of the EU summit on June 23, in which the member states are expected to decide whether to grant Ukraine candidate status, which would pave the way for accession talks.
It is also possible, the outlet claims, that rumors of London’s plans to woo Kiev away from the EU are meant to put additional pressure on the leaders of member states ahead of their meeting next month.
While unanimously condemning Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, individual member states have offered Kiev varying levels of military support. Despite being far from the wealthiest members of the bloc, Poland and the Baltic states are firmly in the lead when it comes to contributing to Ukraine’s defense, while powerhouses such as France and Germany have kept their donations relatively modest to date.
Commenting on this latest report in the Italian media, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Russian officials were not aware whether Johnson indeed has these intentions, though if it turns out to be the case, Moscow would view this as an attempt by London to ignite a feud to undermine the EU’s position.
Microsoft’s global ubiquity gives its cybersecurity experts a unique window into the Russian cyberwar against Ukraine. The software giant is involved in both monitoring and combatting attacks.
The remaining 13 Security Council members unanimously supported the US-drafted resolution against North Korea
The UN Security Council failed to reach common ground on new sanctions against Pyongyang on Thursday. Washington proposed the sanctions in the wake of North Korea’s latest missile test this week, on the heels of US President Joe Biden’s Asia tour.
The vote came just a day after North Korea was accused of test-launching its largest intercontinental ballistic missile and two others. Ahead of the vote, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield called for unity in the face of “a threat to the entire international community.”
However, China and Russia vetoed new sanctions on humanitarian grounds, pointing to their futility and even “inhumanity,” as North Korea struggled to contain a massive Covid-19 outbreak.
The UNSC imposed sanctions on North Korea back in 2006, following its first nuclear test, and has tightened them over the years. Since the latest round of restrictions in 2017, Moscow and Beijing have increasingly been arguing that further pressure is a road to nowhere and unlikely to force Pyongyang to disarm unilaterally.
“We do not think additional sanctions will be helpful in responding to the current situation. It can only make the situation even worse,” China’s UN Ambassador Zhang Jun said on Thursday.
“We have repeatedly said that the introduction of new sanctions against the DPRK is a dead end,” said Russia’s representative Vasily Nebenzya. “We emphasized the fallacy, inefficiency and inhumanity of sanctions pressure on Pyongyang.”
The new resolution sought to cut North Korea’s already limited imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products by another 25 percent, impose additional maritime sanctions, and ban the country from exporting mineral fuels, oils and waxes. Washington also proposed a global asset freeze on the state corporation that supervises North Korean laborers overseas, as well as the Lazarus hacking group, accused of “cyberespionage, data theft, monetary heists” on behalf of the Pyongyang government.
Pyongyang has for years accused Washington and Seoul of “hostile policy” towards the North, and vowed to maintain a sufficient level of deterrence. Regional tensions somewhat improved during the presidency of Donald Trump, with Pyongyang temporarily halting its missile tests. However, the two much-hyped summits between the US and DPRK leaders in 2018 and 2019 reached no lasting agreement on the subject of sanctions or denuclearization.
Biden has returned to the more hostile posture of his predecessors, while North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un has responded in kind, by firing off over a dozen of ballistic missiles this year alone and warning that the DPRK not only has a “firm will” to continue with its “nuclear deterrent” program but will use such weapons “preemptively,” if forced to.
New South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol similarly ran on a more hawkish platform than his predecessor Moon Jae-in.
