The heads of Germany, France and Poland called on Moscow for a substantive dialogue on security issues in Europe.

This is stated in a joint statement by Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron and Andrzej Duda, distributed after their negotiations in the format of the so-called Weimar Triangle.

The leaders of the three European countries called on Russia "to help defuse the situation on the Ukrainian border and start a substantive dialogue on security issues on the European continent."

At the same time, Germany, France and Poland undertake to coordinate their actions in this area with partners in the European Union and NATO allies.

“The heads of state and government of the Weimar Triangle stressed their commitment to joint efforts to strengthen the European and transatlantic security architecture,” TASS quoted them as saying.

At the same time, Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron and Andrzej Duda declared their readiness to participate in "substantive and result-oriented negotiations on security issues of mutual interest."

At the same time, the leaders of the Weimar Triangle countries once again stated that Russia's military "aggression" against Ukraine would have serious consequences and a "high price".

In addition, Scholz, Macron and Duda noted the need for a regular review of NATO's defense and deterrence strategies "in light of the deteriorating security situation."

Interest Triangle

The Weimar Triangle was formed in 1991, it is a tripartite political association of Germany, France and Poland.

This is not the first time Berlin, Paris and Warsaw have spoken about the need to maintain dialogue with Moscow in this format.

So, the foreign ministers of the countries of the triangle last announced this in October 2020.

“We recall the importance of a realistic and demanding dialogue with the Russian authorities, in particular, in order to prevent unintended escalation and strengthen the rules-based world order and European security and stability,” TASS quotes the text of their statement.

Then the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland also declared "unconditional support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine" and said that the Minsk agreements were the only basis for resolving the conflict in Donbass.

At the same time, representatives of the Weimar Triangle called for the full implementation of the decisions of the Normandy Four summit in Paris, which took place in December 2019.

Recall that the Paris summit in 2019 was the last meeting of the leaders of the countries participating in the Normandy format (Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine) today.

As a result of this summit, the parties published a communiqué, which spoke about the need to implement the Steinmeier formula (on granting a special status to the regions of Donbass) in the legislation of Ukraine, as well as adherence to the Minsk agreements.

However, after this summit, Ukraine actually froze the implementation of the Minsk agreements, refusing to implement the Steinmeier formula.

  • Olaf Scholz, Andrzej Duda and Emmanuel Macron

  • AP

  • © Hannibal Hanschke

Zelensky himself, some time after the summit, began to publicly demonstrate his dissatisfaction with the Minsk agreements and in December 2020 announced that he would like to withdraw from them.

At the same time, other official representatives of Kiev, on the contrary, stated that Ukraine remains committed to them.

In turn, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said on the eve that Kiev had fulfilled all the obligations it had undertaken at the Normandy Four talks in Paris in 2019 on the situation around Donbass.

Political motives

It is worth noting that the meeting of the leaders of Germany, France and Poland within the framework of the Weimar Triangle took place shortly after the meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with Emmanuel Macron in Moscow.

One of the main topics of negotiations between the two heads of state was the situation in Ukraine.

After that, Macron went to Kiev, where he met with Zelensky.

Macron later said that as a result of the trip to Moscow and negotiations with Vladimir Putin, he achieved his main goal and prevented the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.

  • Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron

  • AP

  • © Gerard Julien

Recall that for several months now, the leadership of a number of Western countries and the media have been consistently aggravating the situation around Ukraine, declaring the “aggression” that Russia allegedly plans against it and for the implementation of which it is pulling troops to the border.

Moscow has repeatedly denied the existence of such plans and called on the West not to escalate the situation around military maneuvers that are taking place on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Commenting on the statement of the leaders of the Weimar Triangle in an interview with RT, Pavel Feldman, deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts of the RUDN University, noted that it does not contain any breakthrough theses.

“There is nothing new in these statements, this is a logical continuation of the process that we have been observing since last year.

At first there was an escalation of tension, and any escalation sooner or later develops either into detente or into a military conflict.

Naturally, neither the Russian Federation nor Western countries are interested in starting a real war in the center of Europe.

But Russia is even less interested in this than Germany, Poland and France, ”the political scientist emphasized.

At the same time, the leaders of Western countries, regardless of the negotiation formats, continue to pay all their attention to Moscow, ignoring Kiev, Pavel Feldman added.

“It is very strange that these statements are mainly directed at Moscow, although it would be worth talking to Kiev.

After all, the unresolved inter-regional civil conflict is taking place not on the territory of the Russian Federation, but on the territory of Ukraine.

Depending on how effectively Ukraine will overcome this conflict in dialogue with representatives of the LPR and DPR, the future of Europe depends, ”the source said.

Therefore, Western partners can be praised for their desire for peace, but their approach to this is not entirely correct, since they first of all need to pay attention to their Ukrainian allies, rather than Russia, Pavel Feldman explained.

At the same time, it is obvious that in this context, each of the leaders individually pursues their own political goals, the political scientist emphasized.

“Germany is trying to strengthen itself as the leader of the common European space, Poland is generally trying to participate in all problems related to ensuring the security of the West, and positions itself as its eastern frontier, protecting the European Union from hypothetical Russian aggression,” the expert explained.

The situation around Ukraine, which the United States is diligently bringing to an escalation, worries the leaders of the EU countries, if only because it is developing in their immediate vicinity, political scientist Alexander Asafov noted in a commentary on RT.

At the same time, the new German government wants to update the rhetoric of loyalty to the United States while maintaining energy independence, and Poland, for a number of economic and political reasons, is connected to any pressure on Russia, the expert noted.

“As for Macron, he has elections in two months, and he must show himself as a strong leader, included in the most important international processes.

This determines both his visit to Moscow and his visit to Kiev, and, of course, his statements that have electoral significance,” Alexander Asafov emphasized.

Now there is a clear understanding that the main beneficiaries of further tension around Ukraine are the United States, which wants to create a pretext for imposing new sanctions, the expert added.

“Neither the leaders of Europe, nor even Ukraine — no one wants this escalation, which could turn into some kind of clashes and turn into negative consequences for everyone except the Americans.

Therefore, of course, everyone is using the current situation for their own purposes, but they also have a common task - to prevent a real conflict, because it threatens their countries.

However, in this case, they need to take into account the interests of Russia, ”concluded the interlocutor of RT.