Borrell: Let’s take out the Patriots and give them to Ukraine. Today Kiev and Sahel on the table

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Capri, Naples – The EU must “take the Patriots missiles out of the warehouses” and send them to Ukraine, “where the war is intensifying, and I am sure we will do it quickly”. The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, responded thus to those who asked him how – and when – Brussels could intensify its help to Kiev. The appeal was reiterated a few hours later by the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, with the call for a “greater air defense” of Kiev.

Borrell and Stoltenberg are participating in the meeting of G7 foreign ministers on 17-19 April in Capri, marked by an agenda that includes the Middle East, Ukraine and relations with sub-Saharan Africa among its priorities. April 17 saw the first discussions on the escalation between Israel and Iran, with the announcement of an agreement on the “retaliatory measures” that the Group will request against individuals involved in supplying war to Iran. On April 18, attention will shift to support for Ukraine’s air defense and political relations with the African Union, an increasingly stringent dialogue on the Sahel front and the repercussions of its instability on Europe.

Borrell: Europe brings out its Patriots

The first issue on the table is the strengthening of support for Ukraine’s air defense, a point also insisted upon by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. Borrell, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the event, clarified that the EU cannot «count only on the USA, we must take our responsibility. We have the Patriots, we have the anti-missile systems, we have to take them out of the warehouses and send them to Ukraine.”

Borrell’s thrust on Ukraine is balanced by the prudence shown on Middle Eastern escalation, in line with the position taken by the Group and already highlighted by the Foreign Minister and host of the ministerial Antonio Tajani. Borrell reiterated the urgency of avoiding a land attack on Rafah, now recalled by Israel among the retaliatory measures against Iran. “If there were an attack in Rafah, where there are 1.7 million people on the streets, there would be a real humanitarian catastrophe,” he told journalists. So the appeal to Israel was very clear from President Biden himself and from all European leaders, not to attack Rafah.”

Relations with Africa and the instability of the Sahel

The other hot point on the agenda is sub-Saharan Africa, starting with the turmoil shaking the Sahel region. A meeting is scheduled for April 18 with the delegates of the African Union, represented in Capri by the Foreign Minister of Mauritania Mohamed Salem Ould Merzoug (unlike what transpired on the eve, the president Mohamed Ould Ghazouani is absent).