EU foreign policy chief warns Europe against falling into Russia's trap over security architecture discussions

Kaja Kallas, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, believes that a ceasefire in Russia's war against Ukraine must come before any discussions about European security architecture.

First, Kallas welcomed US envoy Jared Kushner's statement that Europeans will be present at the peace talks and expressed hope that the EU would indeed have influence.

She also expects the EU to be consistent and uphold its position that a ceasefire and peace agreement must come first, before any other discussions.

"First, there has to be a ceasefire. Any kind of other discussion about the European security architecture will just take the attention away from the fact that we first need a ceasefire to see that Russians have any kind of will to have peace," Kallas said on arrival at the informal EU summit in Dublin.

"If we start to talk about what Russia is asking regarding the security architecture, we actually walk into the traps that Russia is setting us, which is that we divert the attention away from that there is no ceasefire and actually start to listen to their claims. Let us focus on what it is at hand; we have one aggressor and one victim. And the aggressor does not have security concerns, and nobody has ever attacked them. They have attacked others. I mean, keep the focus, people."

Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal also believes that Russia is using the issue of a new European security architecture to distract Europeans.

Axios reported that the US has asked Russia to submit a new proposal for a future security agreement with Europe, which would include steps by Russia aimed at easing tensions in relations.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has put forward ideas for a new European security architecture, proposing that non-aggression agreements be concluded with NATO member states.