Dissenting voices have emerged among European leaders on whether they should speak directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin before EU and Nato meetings this week.
The leaders who are scheduled to meet on Thursday in Belgium will attempt to respond to a heightened sense of urgency on the continent to end its dependence on the US and China particularly in artificial intelligence.
The leaders' retreat has been called in an effort to forge a spirit of unity, particularly in light of US demands for control over Greenland and a push to establish a ceasefire in Ukraine that will be accepted by the Kremlin.
The European states also want to move quickly towards less reliance on the US for defence after US President Donald Trump revealed his determination to take over Greenland.
The US's Pete Hegseth will be absent at a meeting on Thursday of Nato defence ministers, a second snub after Secretary of State Marco Rubio missed an earlier meeting.
Europe is yet to agree on action.
“There has been a growing sense of European solidarity and a growing understanding that Europe will need to be more self reliant, but Europe's not there yet. It's going to be a long, hard journey,” Jane Kinninmont, chief executive of UN Association of the UK (UNA-UK) said.
There is also worry among European Nato allies that the US may launch a another bombing campaign against Iran after nuclear-focused direct talks dragged on. Turkey, a neighbour of Iran, in particular fears regional destabilisation. The topic is too divisive to expect a clear position, Ms Kinninmont said.
Weapons of coercion
Boosting independence also comes with new commercial partnerships, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said, as she promises to cut red tape and push for more free trade agreements such as the one recently struck with India after more than two decades of negotiations.
“Our power on the global stage depends greatly on our strength on the economic front,” Ms von der Leyen told the European Parliament on Wednesday. “Today, dependencies are at risk of becoming weapons of coercion.”
European disunity is all the more striking when it comes to what it views as an existential threat – Russia's war on Ukraine. Four years into the war, and as US-mediated talks move forward, Europe remains sidelined despite the continent being Ukraine's biggest financial donor.
An Italian push to appoint a special envoy on peace talks has been met with lukewarm enthusiasm particularly among Baltic states. The EU's foreign affairs minister, Kaja Kallas, has said it was important for the bloc to decide its messages to Moscow before considering such an appointment. “The so-called peace talk rhetoric is merely a tactic to buy time,” the Estonian Foreign Intelligence agency said on Tuesday.
France and Germany used to speak regularly to Russia before its so-called special military operation in Ukraine began in 2022, but the perception in Berlin is that too much talking was counterproductive. “European countries are all generally thinking more about hedging their bets and having to be more self reliant. But they're in different places about how quickly they can move,” Ms Kinninmont said.
“The Americans don't have a coherent ask either … what we seem to see from the Trump administration is, on one hand, the desire to give less, but also still a desire to tell European countries what to do,” Ms Kinninmont added.
A French attempt aimed at relaunching talks with Russia appears to have petered out after Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described as “pathetic diplomacy” a visit to Moscow last week by a diplomatic adviser to President Emmanuel Macron.
Similarly, France has also pushed for a “buy European” preference that has been disparaged by Germany and Nordic countries. “I'm very sceptical,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told the Financial Times on Wednesday. “We need to be able to compete because of quality and because of innovation, not because we try to protect the European markets.”
Mr Macron's mandate ends next year and he cannot run for president again. Weakened at a national level, he lacks the political clout to push his ideas to the top in Europe. France was in a minority that tried and failed to block the Mercosur trade deal with Latin American nations last month.
“We are facing a dual crisis: a commercial tsunami from China and split-second instability from the American side,” he told journalists this week.
