Informal meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministers (GYMNICH): Press remarks by High Representative Kaja Kallas upon arrival 

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Good to see everybody,

We have a Gymnich meeting coming up with the Foreign Ministers today.

First, of course, everybody will discuss the Leipzig attacks, and also it is clear that it has all the hallmarks of state-sponsored terrorism. The question is, what do we do about this? We have already summoned Russian ambassadors, so have also many Member States, and we will discuss what more can we do. 

We have already in the pipeline 1,600 listings for the military complex of Russia, and maybe there are more to be added. Of course, this is not something that we are deciding today, as it is an informal meeting. But we will definitely discuss this. 

Then, Ukraine. We have our friends here as well from different countries, also Ukraine [is] joining us. It is clear that we need to coordinate what more can we do in this situation where Russia is escalating and really killing civilians and causing as much harm as they can. The discussions [will be about], how we can actually put more pressure on Russia so that they would end this war. 

Then we will talk about our internal issues, European foreign policy as such - how we can be more effective in this regard? Of course, it all stems down to the question of unity versus unanimity, which means that this is the basic problem that we have: how to reach unity, to use the treaties, everything that we have in the treaties already. Because I think, in this geopolitical context, we have to be more agile, and we have to really be able to react to situations that are upcoming.

Also, we will discuss our work in the multilateral fora,: how we can better coordinate in terms of the work there, so that we would speak with one voice, and we would also go behind one European candidate. Because if you look at the multilateral organisations, Europe is paying a lot for the costs of these organisations, but we are not maybe always represented the same way. So, there is plenty to discuss there.

And then, finally, we also have Middle East. There we will focus on freedom of navigation, not only the Strait of Hormuz but also the Red Sea.

There we have two operations. What more can we do also together with the Saudi-led multinational team there. So, what more can we do in this regard. 

And these are of course also the discussions about what is happening in the West Bank. What is our common approach there. You know the situation so far, but we will discuss where we are united. 

So that is a pretty full day.

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/media/video/I-293171

Q&A

Q. Agreeing on EU sanctions is becoming harder and harder. Why are you so confident that you will find a decisive response to Russian hybrid attacks?

The work is going on, and we started with less listings, but actually, Member States have brought even more. Of course, you have to check everything that it is legally sound, and that takes time. But seeing these hybrid attacks across Europe, I think these are also wake-up calls for the countries who have not been so strong on this. That actually, if we want to end this war, we all have to focus our efforts.

Q. Do you think that the measures of Germany will help as Putin already said that it is a heavy mistake?

It definitely is a very strong signal. So, Germany has done a lot, and we will definitely hear from our colleague what more can we do together. Just this morning we had discussions, and also [the] Germans were very grateful for all the Member States being behind Germany here. I think this is the unified response that we need to really take.

Q. What will Europe be doing to protect critical infrastructure after what we saw at the Leipzig airport?

[On] critical infrastructure, we have now also a joint exercise coming up. We have the projects of common interest: how we can actually monitor and protect the critical infrastructure. We were discussing this with the Defence Ministers yesterday. Of course, it is very hard because it is undersea, and you do not have the same visibility as you have for infrastructure on the ground. But there are still new tools that we can use - undersea water drones and all these things that we can also learn from the innovation made by Ukraine, for example. So, there are possibilities to do more.