EU attempts to talk Indo-Pacific relations amid looming Ukraine crisis

Despite efforts to build a collective European strategy towards Asia, the situation in Ukraine stole the focus on Tuesday

EU foreign minister Josep Borrell speaks at the Ministerial Co-operation Forum in Paris, as part of the French EU Council Presidency. AFP

Safe maritime trade links between Europe and Asia are vital to future trade, prosperity and the global economy, EU officials said on Tuesday, at a ministerial gathering to discuss the bloc's strategy towards the Indo-Pacific region under the shadow of the crisis in Ukraine.

“Before it was spices and today it is microchips, but together the Indo-Pacific and EU represent 70 per cent of world trade and more than half the world’s economy, so it’s in our interest to work together,” EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell said as he opened the summit in Paris.

“When a boat blocks the Suez Canal it costs €500 million a day, 40 per cent of our trade goes through the straights of the Indo-Pacific region … if these routes are blocked then our entire foreign trade is blocked,” he told assembled ministers and delegates from nearly 30 countries and organisations from the east coast of Africa to Japan and elsewhere.

"The geopolitical risks are enormous and the prosperity of your and our countries are [at sake].

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, whose office organised the summit, pushed the role of the EU as a defender of a rules-based world order that protects free trade, interconnectedness, privacy and human rights and co-operation to tackle global threats from climate change to pandemics.

“The fight for the common good is a collective fight,” he said.

Despite trying to focus on Indo-Pacific affairs, the Ukraine crisis overshadowed the summit.

“Russian troops in Donbas I wouldn’t say is a full invasion, but they are on Ukrainian soil,” Mr Borrell said, as he arrived at the forum. He declined to comment until after a meeting of EU ministers later in the day on sanctions or any specific European response to Russia recognising breakaway Ukrainian republics and deploying forces overnight on Monday.

Firefighters arrive at a military building in Kiev that was damaged in an explosion. EPA

A man looks at the debris of an unidentified object in the aftermath of an explosion in Kiev. EPA

Black smoke rises from a military airport in Chuguyev near Kharkiv. AFP

People take shelter in a Kiev subway station, after Russian President Vladimir Putin authorised a military operation in eastern Ukraine. Reuters

A Kiev underground train station provides some shelter. Reuters

Clear airspace over Ukraine, shortly after the attack began, as shown on the Flightradar24 website. AP

Kiev residents leave the city following pre-offensive missile strikes by the Russian armed forces and Belarus. Getty

Russian President Vladimir Putin justified the attack in a televised address, saying it was to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine. AP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the nation in Kiev. He has declared martial law, saying Russia has targeted Ukraine's military infrastructure. AP

Firefighters extinguish a blaze at a house in Muratovo, in Ukraine's Luhansk enclave. AFP

The house is said to have been hit during shelling by Russian-backed separatists. AFP

The coffin of Capt Anton Sidorov is carried by members of the honour guard during a ceremony held at the Ministry of Defence in Kiev, Ukraine. Getty

A picture memorial for those killed in the confrontation between Ukraine's military and pro-Russia separatist forces, in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine. AP

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Russia's Ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, attend a Security Council meeting in New York to discuss the crisis in Ukraine. Reuters

Ukraine's UN ambassador Sergey Kyslytsya speaks during an emergency meeting of the Security Council. AP

US Army soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division head towards an air base near Arlamow, Poland. Reuters

An employee works at the gun counter of a tactical equipment shop in Kiev, Ukraine. Getty

A Ukrainian soldier speaks on a walkie-talkie at his position at the line of separation between Ukraine-held territory and rebel-held territory near Svitlodarsk, eastern Ukraine. AP

A man removes his belongings from his house after it was struck by artillery shells in Novoluhanske, eastern Ukraine. AP

A damaged house in Vibrovka village. EPA

A man shows a poster in support of Ukraine as he protests against the escalation of the tension between Russia and Ukraine, in Berlin. AP

Soldiers carry the coffin of Capt Anton Sydorov, 35, after he was killed in eastern Ukraine. AP

Workers look into a destroyed house after shelling near the city of Novoluhanske in Donetsk. Reuters

Destroyed buildings in Krasnogorivka, Ukraine. AFP

Smoke rises from a power plant after shelling outside the town of Schastia, a day after Moscow recognised two Ukrainian separatist republics and ordered the Russian Army to send in troops as ‘peacekeepers’. AFP

A Ukrainian Army soldier trudges through the wintry streets of Schastia on patrol. AFP

Three women run for cover during shelling in Schastia, eastern Ukraine. AFP

Russian tanks and armoured vehicles on the road in Rostov. EPA

A woman shares food with dogs in Stanytsia Luhanska, a crossing point between Ukrainian government-controlled areas and pro-Russian separatists' territory. AP

People wave Russian flags in Donetsk, the territory controlled by pro-Russian militants, in eastern Ukraine. AP

A tank drives along a street in the city of Donetsk. Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the nation on TV and says 'we are not afraid' after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Donetsk and Luhansk, two Moscow-backed rebel regions of Ukraine. AFP

A military truck in Donetsk after Mr Putin ordered the deployment of Russian troops to the city. Reuters

Russian state television showed Mr Putin signing a decree recognising the independence of the two Ukrainian breakaway regions. Reuters

US President Joe Biden signs an executive order at the White House to prohibit trade and investment between US individuals and the two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine. Reuters

Mr Putin signs documents, including the decree recognising two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine. Reuters

Ukraine ambassador to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya, addresses an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on the situation between Ukraine and Russia in New York. EPA

EU officials hinted, however, that initial response would likely be limited given divisions on how to move forward and the extent to which Moscow’s moves represent a transgression of red lines.

“Russia no longer has the power to dominate, so it disrupts,” said Mr Frans Timmermans, executive vice president of the European Commission.

He said that having lived through decades of peace and co-operation in Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall, it was vital that a new Iron Curtain is not drawn across the continent.

Free movement of maritime trade is a central point of discussion on Tuesday and it is likely that China will feature high on the agenda despite not being invited to the meeting.

“In our region, the logic of power is becoming increasingly manifest,” Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told delegates, highlighting the threat such as the North Korean ballistic missile tests.

“China has escalated unilateral attempts to change the status … of the South China Sea and Russia and China have taken steps that are concerning,” he said. Japan will invest in bolstering defence and US ties, he said.

French diplomatic sources told The National that the decision not to invite China was because the summit is aimed at a collective EU strategy with Indo-Pacific, not any one country and that the EU already has a well laid-out approach to Beijing.

“The EU view of China is as a systemic rival, an economic competitor and a partner for relations on a number of issues,” the source said. The extent to which China will be the focus of Tuesday’s summit will be up to the participants, they said.

“The EU way to behave is co-operation – the pandemic has shown that co-operation is the only way to build the world of tomorrow,” the source said. “But we’re not naive – major countries are showing assertiveness on the world stage co-operation is the solution.”

The US is also excluded from Tuesday’s meeting but the source said that the European approach will be taken in close co-operation with Washington and that they wanted to focus on the EU rather than take a global approach to relations with Asia.

Canada, however, is in attendance.

French-US ties were strained last year when Australia scrapped a deal to buy billions of dollars worth of advanced submarines from Paris in favour of a pact with Washington.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne is attending Tuesday’s summit but the French diplomatic source said they did not envisage Mr Le Drian would meet her on the sidelines.

The summit, they insisted, is part of France’s presidency of the European Council and so came as part of that EU role rather than to raise national priorities.