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How will Henry Kissinger be remembered in Europe?
Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden, shares his perspective on European politics from Stockholm.
How will Henry Kissinger be remembered in Europe?
There's always an amount of controversy around the person who's been around in politics in powerful positions for such a long time as he was. But primarily, I think he would be remembered as a great European. He was an American, no doubt. But he came out of the tragedy of Europe and he was deep concerned with all of the lessons that could be learned from the failure to preserve peace in Europe time after time. His first academic and his first book was about the Congress of Vienna. And then book after book after book, that was really around the same theme, how to preserve peace also in the age of nuclear weapons. And that, of course, from the European point of view, is not an insubstantial issue.
Is the nuclear renaissance going on in Europe?
Sort of. I would say. There are still countries that are very much opposed. The Germans are, the Austrians are, there might be others. But I noticed that in Dubai, COP28, there was now signed declaration by a number of European leaders as well to triple global nuclear power by 2050. So no doubt nuclear power will make a substantial contribution to the efforts to create a much greener and much more sustainable Europe in the decades to come.
UN Security Council resolution calls for Gaza humanitarian pauses
Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden, shares his perspective on European politics from Stockholm.
How is Europe reacting to the different calls for ceasefire in the Gaza war?
The important thing, I think, was that the UN Security Council the other day managed to get a resolution adopted. It was proposed by Malta, and it calls for a multitude of ceasefires or pauses. Not necessarily a permanent ceasefire, but clearly extended periods in which humanitarian supplies can reach Gaza, and perhaps also provide the political necessary space for release, at least of some of the hostages. We'll see if first time the Security Council has managed to agree on anything in this particular conflict, if that has any effect whatsoever.
Is there risk of a serious disruption to air traffic due to volcanic eruption on Iceland?
Well, we've all learned from experience in that particular case. I remember myself being stranded in London a couple of years ago when there was that volcanic eruption. In this case, the experts who say the risks are far, far smaller or small town has been evacuated close to Reykjavik and close to the port of Keflavik. But they say that the risk of anything that would be disruption to air traffic is very small indeed, at least something good in the world today.
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Russia leaves nuclear test ban treaty in show of public posturing
Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden, shares his perspective on European politics from Stockholm.
What can be done by Europe or others to help the 1.7 million Afghan refugees that are now being expelled from Pakistan back into Afghanistan?
Well, sorry to say the answer is not very much can be done. We are delivering humanitarian aid to some extent, and the UN is there to Afghanistan, but to take care of or to help substantially 1.7 million people that are expelled from Pakistan is going to be very difficult. Relationship with the Taliban regime is virtually non-existent, so it's one of these tragedies that are happening at the same time as we have the Gaza War and the Ukraine War.
Does Europe feel less secure now that Russia has revoked its ratification of the test ban treaty?
Well, not really changing very much. What the Russians are doing is that they're doing, to the same situation as the Americans have, because the US hasn't ratified the CTBT either, but they adhere to it, and that is just as well. So, the Russians decided, and I think it's a signaling effect to some extent, that nuclear weapons are there and that they, at some point in time, might presume nuclear testing. But until they do that, and I hope they don't, it doesn't mean very much, but it shows that they are sort of playing around with nuclear weapons and with public posturing with nuclear weapons, which of course is less than good.
Putin tries to advance in Ukraine while world focuses on Gaza
Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden, shares his perspective on European politics from Stockholm.
What's been the reaction so far of the European Union to the war in Gaza?
Well, the vote in the UN General Assembly the other day, the Jordanian-sponsored one on protection of civilians and legal unitarian obligations, you saw the European Union countries all over the place. You had eight of them voting in favor of the resolution, four voting against, and the rest simply abstaining. So it was not the most glorious moment. This is a highly divisive issue, and we'll see where it goes from here.
What's been the effect of the Gaza war on Ukraine?
The war in Ukraine is going on. At the moment, there has been, for the last week, a very large attempt by Russia to conduct offensive operations in the vicinity of Donetsk. They've been throwing a lot of men and a lot of material into that, making some small gains, but they've also had horrendous losses. We'll see how that continues. It's evidently that Mr. Putin wants to be able to say that he's making some advances, not very credible so far. And the day entries of course, that the attention of the world is going to be elsewhere and that a large part of the world is going to see the Western reaction to Gaza and Ukraine combined as if we see international law that is something that is there for a la carte, which it shouldn't really be.
Can the EU get aid to Gaza?
Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden, shares his perspective on European politics - this week from Milan.
Can Europe help with the humanitarian crisis in Gaza?
Well, in theory, absolutely. The European Commission has tripled the amount of money available for humanitarian help to Gaza. But the problem is, of course, getting it in. For reasons that is beyond me, the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza is closed. There's a lot of floods of humanitarian help outside that has been flowing into Egypt, waiting to cross, but they are not opening up the border. I would hope that there will be soon an agreement to open up that border and allow the help to get into Gaza. There’re huge numbers, millions of people that are really suffering and need that particular help. Now, that is also politically important, obviously.
What's going to be the effect of the Polish election?
Well, in a rather dark picture, in terms of global and other affairs, this is a bright spot. A rather decisive win for the democratic and European opposition in Poland. Now, it's going to take some time to form a government. The PiS, the outgoing party, is still the largest party in parliament, so they will get a first go at forming a government. And I think they will try all sorts of tricks for a while. That's going to take weeks, but they will fail, and then we will have a new government. With Donald Tusk returning as prime minister, we will have a government in Poland that is decidedly democratic, committed to the rule of law, committed to European integration, committed to helping Ukraine. That is in a dark situation otherwise, distinctly good news.
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Israel-Hamas war: How is Europe responding?
Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden, shares his perspective on European politics from Stockholm.
What’s the European reaction to the Hamas terror attack against Israel?
Well, the first reaction is obviously, the European foreign ministers were gathering, they had an extraordinary meeting by Zoom, as well, to express support for Israel, solidarity, understanding that Israel does have, no question about that, the right to defend itself. But also saying that there is also international humanitarian law and international law otherwise, and concern that the fighting that we will see, that it's going to have immense humanitarian and human consequences, and the fears that this, in its turn, will have different political consequences in the region and perhaps wider. This is on the doorsteps of Europe - that might be difficult to handle. Then, another bit of questioning, was it right to have the Israel-Palestine issue on the back burner both in the US and Europe during the last few years? Probably not. Could this have been prevented? We'll never know if that could have been the case. But clearly, this is an issue that has to be on the agenda one way or the other after the more acute face of the rather horrible war that we now see after the terror attack.
What was the outcome of President Zelensky's visit to NATO?
Well, he went there, of course, because of the fact that there is a fair degree of worry, has to be said, in Europe of what is happening or not happening in the US House of Representatives and what that will mean for US ability to sustain the necessary support for Ukraine. So President Zelensky wanted to say to the Europeans and say to the Americans, "We really need artillery, ammunition, we really need anti-aircraft systems of different sorts. We really need long range weapons in order to be able to sustain our offensive and take care of the Russian offensives that are likely to come." There were some substantial support packages announced, one by the Americans, but one even more important, I think, and more substantial, by the Germans and others, but more will clearly have to come. We are now dealing with, we Europeans, one big war in Europe and one potentially big war right on our doorsteps. So it is, needless to say, difficult times.
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Kosovo-Serbia tensions worsen, hurting EU membership hopes
Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden, shares his perspective on European politics - this week from Stockholm.
Are Serbia and Kosovo heading towards a confrontation?
It looks very bad. What happened in northern Kosovo the other day was distinctly bad. A collection of fairly well-armed and well-organized Serb thugs did an operation that was eventually beaten back by Kosovo police. It follows a cycle of escalation that was initiated on the Kosovo side, has to be said, last year, and has not been brought under control by rather intense diplomacy, both by the Europeans and by the Americans. At the moment, things look very bleak. This, of course, is damaging the EU integration prospects for both Serbia and Kosovo. Let's see what happens.
How can the EU react to what's happening in Nagorno-Karabakh?
Well, it was a very blatant military operation by the Azeris that sort of captured, de facto destroyed the autonomous functions of Nagorno-Karabakh. And it has encouraged, or forced, however you want to phrase it, practically all of the Armenians to evacuate in the direction of Armenia. It’s a huge political and humanitarian tragedy. How we can respond remains to be seen at the moment. It's very much a question of trying to alleviate the horrible humanitarian consequences.
Ukraine-EU farm export dispute: Are there any consequences?
Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden, shares his perspective on European politics - this week from the airport in Madrid.
What are the consequence of the dispute now between Ukraine and the European Union on farm exports?
It is not really a dispute with the European Union because the commission has said that farm exports are okay. But then suddenly Poland has an election, and Slovakia which has election and Hungary, which has own policy, said, “No, no, we don't allow these particular grain exports from Ukraine because our farmers don't like it.” That runs totally contrary to the common trade policy that the European Union is running, runs totally contrary to the solidarity with Ukraine and support to Ukraine that we have all agreed on. So yeah, we'll see what happens. It’s a serious question.
What's the issue of using Catalan language in the European Parliament and the European Union as well?
Well, this is part of the efforts here in Spain to set up the new government. I mean, the socialists who have a very, very difficult position on negotiating with the Catalan separatists and the Catalan separatists, among other demands, are demanding that both Catalan and the Galician and Basque language should be official languages in the European Union. This brings up a huge number of issues, apart from making the European Union even more of a Tower of Babel than it is at the moment. The cost of translating every single speech, every single document, every single thing into the three languages brings immense costs, immense complexity. So expect the other European governments to say, “Hmm, we've listened to the demand. Let's ask the lawyers. Let's have a working group and let's do nothing.”