A summit between European, Latin American and Caribbean leaders on Tuesday (18 July) highlighted a rift over how to condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine as, until the last minute, they haggled over the final wording of the summit communiqué.
Latin American leaders came to Brussels hoping to make progress in unblocking the stalled EU-Mercosur trade deal with Argentina, Brazil Paraguay and Uruguay which is being held up over environmental concerns.
As EU leaders and their Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) counterparts met for a second day, diplomats were struggling to agree on the language of a final summit communiqué.
Some Latin American leaders had in the weeks prior expressed frustration with Europe’s insistence on the importance of the war in Ukraine and were seeking to remove any reference to the war from the summit declaration.
As EURACTIV reported earlier, Latin American countries threw cold water on the EU’s efforts to rally the continent’s support for Kyiv and called for colonial reparations in a counter-proposal of an upcoming EU summit draft declaration.
Contested wording
Subsequent versions of the draft communiqué showed that language on Ukraine had been watered down, going from “strongly” condemning Russia “violating” Ukraine’s sovereignty, to a version that “expressed concern” about the war in Ukraine.
Over the course of the summit, a handful of Latin American countries – spearheaded by Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela – were opposed to agreeing to a text holding Russia responsible for the war, EU and Latin American diplomats said.
Others were more ready to sign up in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty but put more emphasis on the need for a negotiated peace rather than a victory for Kyiv.
In the end, 59 of the 60 countries agreed on language that expressed “deep concern on the ongoing war against Ukraine”, without mentioning Russia as the aggressor.
“This Declaration was endorsed by all countries with one exception due to its disagreement with one paragraph,” a footnote in the declaration
“We express deep concern on the ongoing war against Ukraine, which continues to cause immense human suffering and is exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy, constraining growth, increasing inflation, disrupting supply chains, heightening energy and food insecurity and elevating financial stability risks,” the final version of the summit declaration read.
“In this sense, we support the need for a just and sustainable peace,” it also said, referencing UN resolutions that have been previously passed on the matter.
“It’s remarkable that we found a wording which many can support, which we maybe didn’t expect in the past,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters after the summit.
“My impression is that there’s a global shift. Russia shows more and more that it has imperialist interests,” he added.
Speaking to reporters earlier in the day, Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki vented his frustration, arguing that countries that once suffered from European colonialism should recognise that Russia is now the imperialist threat.
“Here in Europe it’s hard to imagine, but in Latin America, Russia is presented as a peaceful country that has been attacked by NATO,” Morawiecki said.
“I would say that by its aggressive policy, Russia is pursuing a colonialist policy, is a colonial empire,” he added.
In Monday’s opening session, CELAC President Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, cited the crisis in Haiti, the Palestinian struggle for statehood and various wars in Africa as deserving of European attention.
And he warned that “sanctions and blockades” triggered by the war in Ukraine would only serve “to penalise the most vulnerable populations”.
Naming Russia
While most EU leaders seemed to show understanding of their Latin American counterpart’s point, they did stress the need to put a name to Russia’s actions.
Irish leader Leo Varadkar said talks had gone late into the night on Monday and that the debate was a valid one, even if the conclusion should be clear.
“A lot of countries will point out that there are other conflicts in the world, and I hear that, and they will say that other conflicts in the world perhaps haven’t got the same amount of attention as Ukraine,” he told reporters.
“There are points that were validly made,” Varadkar conceded, “but two wrongs don’t make a right. What Russia is doing in Ukraine is wrong and it’s really important that we’re clear about that here.”
Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said: “It would be a shame that we are not able to say that there is Russian aggression in Ukraine.”
“It’s a fact, and I’m not here to rewrite history,” he added.
As the leaders met in Brussels, Russia refused to extend a deal to allow Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea, drawing a warning from the UN that millions of the world’s poorest would “pay the price”.
[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]
