President of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel warned that European countries may be excluded from negotiations on settling the war in Ukraine if they do not formulate their own proposals and secure participation in the diplomatic process. In his opinion, there is a risk that Russia, the United States and China may agree on European security issues without the participation of Europe itself.
Pavel stated this on November 2 after a meeting of the Czech government in Prague, reports the Czech News Agency ČTK.
According to the president, Europe currently has a limited window of opportunity to join the negotiations. However, it may close if European states take too long to reach full agreement on all issues.
Pavel believes that it is not necessary to wait for unanimous support from all European countries to begin participating in the diplomatic process. He acknowledged that agreeing on a common negotiating position and candidates for European representatives will be difficult.
The president emphasized that delay may lead to a situation where decisions directly affecting the security of European states will be made without their participation.
As a possible scenario, he mentioned reaching agreements between Russia, the United States and China. This is a warning from Pavel, not a confirmed existence of such a trilateral negotiating format.
The Czech president also spoke about a phone conversation with Finnish President Alexander Stubb on October 28. They discussed contacts between the Finnish leader and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which took place the previous day.
According to Pavel, information received from the participants indicates a certain readiness of the Russian side for dialogue. At the same time, he did not report on specific agreements reached during these contacts.
Pavel noted that European states should use the current opportunity for negotiations, acting rationally and thoroughly preparing to discuss security issues.
Previously, the Czech president had already called on European countries to form a unified position on ending the war in Ukraine. He emphasized that Europe's interests do not always fully coincide with approaches of the American administration, so European states must independently participate in developing future agreements.
Against this background, preparations are underway for resuming trilateral consultations between Ukraine, the United States and Russia. The negotiations are expected to take place in Abu Dhabi in the first half of November. Kyiv named the possible period of the meeting as November 6–10, but the final date has not yet been agreed.
The Russian side previously stated that initial consultations will take place without representatives of European countries, although it did not rule out their inclusion at subsequent stages. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, on the contrary, advocated for Europe's participation in discussing future security guarantees.
In addition, on November 2, Pavel commented on the possibility discussed in the European Union of providing Ukraine with a new loan of approximately 45 billion euros to cover financial needs in 2027.
The Czech president supported his country's participation in guarantees for such a loan. He emphasized that assistance to Ukraine serves not only European security interests, but also the economic interests of the Czech Republic.
However, according to Politico, representatives of the Czech Republic and Slovakia previously expressed unwillingness to participate in the new credit guarantee mechanism. Pavel said that during the government meeting on November 2, he did not discuss this issue with Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.
Based on: ČTK / České noviny, ČTK, Kurs Ukrainy.
