BRUSSELS, Oct. 14 (EUROPE PRESS) –
The European Union will adopt sanctions on Monday against those responsible for the repression in Iran and will formally approve a new training mission for the Ukrainian Army, with a view to starting the training of soldiers who will fight the Russian invasion in mid-November.
The Foreign Ministers of the Twenty-seven meet this Monday in Luxembourg at a meeting marked by the EU’s response to the situation in Iran, where the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman detained for allegedly wearing the veil wrong, has led to protests violently repressed by Tehran.
The step comes after Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark and the Czech Republic asked a week ago to sanction 16 people and entities involved in the repressive spiral. Finally, European sources point out that the coercive measures that include freezing assets in the EU and vetoing entry to community soil will affect “a dozen people”, after the consensus reached at the level of ambassadors of the 27 this Wednesday.
In Brussels they understand that the repression unleashed in Iran is “so obvious” that the decision to adopt sanctions was the next step and “the correct response” to the crisis. Of course, they separate this situation from the nuclear agreement that the EU is negotiating with Tehran and, despite recognizing that the context is not the best to hold negotiations, the emphasis is placed on the fact that nuclear contacts follow “another logic”.
TRAIN 15,000 UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS
On the other hand, those responsible for Foreign Affairs of the Twenty-seven will have on the table the formal adoption of the EU training mission for the Ukrainian Army, a decision that in the community capital they see as one more step in the “political line” of the bloc in the face of the conflict in Ukraine, which involves sending military, financial and humanitarian support to kyiv.
Raised by the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, last August, the mission will be ratified on Monday and expects to train 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers on European soil, most of them, 12,000, will receive basic military training.
The activity will take place on European soil, with Poland being one of the countries that will host the training activities, which include both basic training for new recruits and specific training for forces with combat experience. In total, the European bloc aims to train 15,000 soldiers with this mission, which has been coordinated with the Ukrainian authorities and follows the formal request from kyiv.
Another issue that the ministers will touch upon is relations with China. It will be a debate on the policy towards the Asian giant within the framework of the new challenges that arise in the world order due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, no major changes are expected in relation to Beijing and there will be a general debate on how the EU can increase its resilience to avoid dependencies that later turn out to be dangerous, as has been seen in the case of Russia and the energy issue.
