Donald Trump took flak on Monday from heads of government and foreign ministers of the ‘Weimar Triangle’, consisting of France, Germany, and Poland, for his claims he would not intervene if a NATO member were to be attacked by Russia.
New Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (KO, EPP) paid inaugural visits to French President Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz over the day.
In parallel, the French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné, Germany’s Annalena Baerbock and Poland’s Radosław Sikorski met up on the Parisian outskirts for a dedicated ‘Weimar Triangle meeting discussing, above all, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East as well as the future of an EU “defence union”.
The Weimar Triangle was created in 1991 as a dialogue forum between Warsaw, Berlin, and Paris but had become mostly dormant after the Eurosceptic Law and Justice (PiS) party took office in Poland in 2016.
With the return of pro-EU Tusk, however, hopes run high, and the ‘Weimar triangle’ is back to the EU’s centre stage.
“The interaction of our three countries is fundamental,” Baerbock said in Paris.
The meetings were also supposed to put to rest claims that the Franco-German tandem and both countries’ relationship with Poland is fraught.
Paris, Berlin, and Warsaw may not always see eye to eye, but “it’s not about playing the same musical instrument. Instead, you should try to find harmony by playing different instruments,” Germany’s Foreign Minister explained.
Trump comments ‘solely in Russia’s interest’
Donald Trump’s latest utterances on the future of NATO appeared to have contributed to the foreign ministers showing a clear front of unity.
Republican candidate and presidential hopeful Trump reiterated on Saturday (10 February) that he would not intervene if Russia attacked NATO members that did not reach the alliance’s spending targets of at least 2% of GDP.
“I’ve not given up hoping I can convince all leaders of the benefits of the [NATO] alliance, including the US,” France’s Séjourné told journalists at a press conference in Paris.
“But every minute counts to prepare Europeans for the shock of the scenario [Russia’s invasion of an EU member state] Donald Trump perfectly described”.
“There is no other alternative other than the EU and NATO,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said hours earlier in a joint declaration alongside Macron in Paris, referring to Alexandre Dumas’ iconic The Three Musketeers motto: “All for one, and one for all!”
He would reiterate the message later in Berlin, with Scholz also taking a thinly veiled dig at Trump.
“Any relativisation of NATO’s guarantee of assistance is irresponsible and dangerous and is solely in Russia’s interest,” Scholz said “in light of recent events”.
Weimar Triangle as a defence bulwark
While the foreign ministers insisted that NATO as it exists today benefits the US, all three of them, as well as Tusk, Scholz and Macron, agreed that it was high time for the EU to ramp up defence capabilities.
“It is essential we become more independent on defence matters,” Germany’s Baerbock told the press conference, in complement to NATO, which she called “a life insurance and backbone”.
In response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, all three countries have already significantly upped their defence spending, with Scholz calling out a “Zeitenwende” for Germany’s defence budget and France’s own 2024-2030 military expenditures earmarking a 40% increase from recent years.
Meanwhile, Poland is set to spend over 3% of its GDP on defence in 2024, Radosław said.
The shock of Russia’s aggression on Ukraine in February 2022 has incentivised EU countries to create a “European defence union”, Baerbock said.
“The EU cannot afford to reflect on its security every four years and be dependent on a third-country [US] election,” Séjourné explained.
Talks among the three foreign ministers were also expected to include ways to increase collective military support to Ukraine, including a reform of the European Peace Facility (EPF), the EU’s off-budget funding mechanism used to reimburse member states for their weapons supplies to Ukraine.
Moreover, the three ministers presented a new coordination plan to fight against foreign interference before the EU elections. They also agreed to push for a ceasefire in Israel’s relentless attack on Gaza.
While France pushes for a “sustainable” stop infighting, Baerbock has only called for “humanitarian ceasefires”.
(Theo Bourgery-Gonse | Euractiv.fr, Nick Alipour | Euractiv.de)
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Source: euractiv.com
