Russian claim that Latvia and Baltic countries plan to help Ukraine launch drones ‘totally ridiculous’, says Rutte - Europe live
From 1h ago 10.40 BST 'Russian claim' on Latvia, Baltics is 'totally ridiculous, and Russia knows it,' Nato's Rutte says Rutte also gets asked about
From 1h ago 10.40 BST 'Russian claim' on Latvia, Baltics is 'totally ridiculous, and Russia knows it,' Nato's Rutte says Rutte also gets asked about Russia’s escalating rhetoric and threats against Latvia and the Baltics, as reported in yesterday’s blog. Russia keeps saying that Latvia and potentially other Baltic countries are about to give Ukraine a permission to attack Russia from its territories with drones. Latvia and Ukraine repeatedly dismissed the claims as “lies.” US warns Russia after Moscow threatens Latvia – as it happened Read more Rutte has no time for it: double quotation mark The Russian claim is totally ridiculous, and Russia knows it. Share Updated at 11.10 BST 7m ago 11.50 BST Hungary's Magyar hopes to meet Ukraine's Zelenskyy as he seeks new opening in relations Hungary’s Péter Magyar said he hoped to hold talks with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in June as the two countries try to repair their bilateral relations after years of tensions caused by pro-Russian Hungarian administration of Viktor Orbán. View image in fullscreen Prime minister of Hungary Péter Magyar attends a joint press conference with Polish prime minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw, Poland. Photograph: Wojciech Olkuśnik/East News/Shutterstock Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of both countries started formal talks about the rights of the ethnic Hungarian minority in Ukraine, which remain one of the stumbling blocks for Ukraine’s process of seeking the membership of the EU (Europe Live, Monday). In sharp contrast with Orbán’s rhetoric, Magyar said that “Ukraine is a victim [of aggression] and has the right to defend itself by all possible means” to safeguards its territorial integrity. He said the war should be ended as soon as possible, with a lasted peace guaranteed by the international community, pointedly saying that the guarantees needed would have to be stronger than those adopted in the Budapest memorandum of 1994. He suggested that he could meet Zelenskyy in the city of Berehove in western Ukraine, in the Zakarpattia region, where many ethnic Hungarians live.
‘He cares about Hungarians’: the small Ukrainian town divided over Orbán Read more Share 14m ago 11.44 BST Tusk and Magyar discuss regional cooperation, energy and EU reforms in Warsaw I have listened back to Donald Tusk and Péter Magyar’s press conference in Warsaw. View image in fullscreen Hungary's prime minister Péter Magyar and Poland's prime minister Donald Tusk hold a joint press conference in Warsaw, Poland. Photograph: Wojtek Radwański/AFP/Getty Images The pair talked a lot about the hopeful signal that the Hungarian election have sent around the world, with Tusk saying Magyar’s win pushed back on claims that liberal democracy was failing in Europe and could not defend itself from populism and authoritarian tendencies. They also spoke about the importance of returning to closer cooperation in the Visegrad Four format with the Czech Republic and Slovakia after years of tensions and conflicts with Viktor Orbán. Tusk and Magyar also spoke about closer energy cooperation which could help Hungary diversify from Russian energy sources, and on their planned reformist agenda in the EU, pushing the bloc to become more economically competitive. But two main lines from the leaders came on other topics, so let me bring them next. Share Updated at 11.45 BST 1h ago 10.58 BST Rutte also repeatedly gets asked about Trump’s criticism of Nato, now backed with first decisions to pull out some troops. But, as usual, he repeats that this is “a healthy” approach as it pushes Europe to do more and take more responsibility for its own security. “Hey, Europe is – with UK and Turkey, and Norway - over 500 million people. We are facing an adversary in Russia of about 120 to 140 million people, and we are now overly dependent on one ally with about 350 million people, making sure that we can defend ourselves against Russia. That’s not sustainable long term, and that one ally cannot keep explaining this to his public.” And that ends his press conference.
Share 1h ago 10.56 BST Rutte also gets asked about his proposals that Nato’s European countries spend 0.25% of their GDP on help for Ukraine. He says his role is “sometimes to bring some bold proposals to the table, and sometimes they will not be accepted – I do not think this one will be.” He says there is “a lot of opposition against this fixed 0.25%,” but he wanted a debate on how Ukraine will continue to be supported. “Ukraine cannot survive without this crucial flow of US gear, industrial output into Ukraine, including anti-missile systems, and anti-missile missiles, interceptors; this is crucial stuff.” He says he wants allies to be honest with each other and figure out how they can share this burden. Share 1h ago 10.51 BST Meanwhile, we are getting a bit more from Lithuania on today’s incident, with the chief of the country’s national crisis management centre saying that the authorities are still trying to figure out if the drone crashed or left the country, and what its origin was. But he confirms it was a military drone. Share 1h ago 10.46 BST Rutte also gets asked for more details on the Estonian incident from yesterday and get pressed on why Nato did not shot down other drones during similar incursions over Romania. He says he cannot reveal more as it remains “confidential,” but he pays tribute to the Romanian-led response to the incident yesterday. Share 1h ago 10.37 BST Rutte gets asked about today’s incident in Lithuania. He says Nato has offered “a calm, decisive, and proportionate response to these drone incursions” in the region. “If drones come from Ukraine, they are not there because Ukraine wanted to send a drone to Latvia, Lithuania, or Estonia. They are there because of the reckless, illegal, full-scale attack of Russia, starting in 2022 after, of course, what they did in Crimea in 2014 against Ukraine.” He hails Nato’s response with a Romanian F-16 fighter jet stationed in Lithuania taking out the drone over Estonia.
He then declines to comment on whether the use of fighter jets is the best way to fight drones. Share 1h ago 10.35 BST Rutte also gets asked about the reigning confusion over the US plans regarding its force posture in Europe, including its decision to pull some troops out of Germany and Poland. As often, he doesn’t really answer the question directly, talking instead about how “the Europeans and the Canadians are massively stepping up in terms of defence spending.” He says he “totally agreed” with US vice-president JD Vance’s comments from last night that “Europe has to take a bigger role” in Nato, and “take more of the responsibility for the conventional defence” of the continent. “Against that background, we know that adjustments will take place. The US has to pivot more towards, for example, Asia. This will take place over time in a structured way,” he says. He points to Nato’s supreme allied commander Alexus Grynkewich’s comments yesterday saying that the changes will not have an impact on Nato’s defence plans (Europe Live, Tuesday). Share 1h ago 10.32 BST Rutte gets asked about growing speculations about who could be the EU’s negotiator with Russia if there are ever direct talks about ending the war in Ukraine – and specifically, about Italy’s Mario Draghi as a potential candidate (as covered on Europe Live blog this week). He says Draghi is a “close personal friend,” but declines to comment. “I think first the EU has to decide on what role it will play, it wants to play, and then, if the answer is yet, there has to be a debate on who can play that role, but I leave that with the EU. I think it’s really for them to decide, not for me to comment.” Share Updated at 10.32 BST
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