Josep Borrell, the EU's high representative for foreign and security policy, speaks to Talking Europe from New York, where he is attending the annual United Nations General Assembly. We discuss the big issues facing the EU in the world: Ukrainian grain exports and food security; the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia; the EU's strategy in the Sahel, and migration.
On the Azerbaijani military offensive to retake the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh – populated by ethnic Armenians but internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan – Borrell says he has "strongly warned about any kind of forced displacement of persons or population, about any kind of [ethnic] cleansing. Certainly, if this happens, the European Union will have to take a strong stance. We have condemned the military action of Azerbaijan and we will condemn anything that could look like forced displacement of persons and any kind of activities against them based on ethnic reasons."
Borrell also addresses the tensions between Ukraine and Poland, in the wake of the Polish prime minister's statement that Poland is no longer transferring weapons to Ukraine, and that Poland will not accept being "destabilised" by grain imports.
"The European Commission is working and my colleagues from trade and agriculture are analysing the problem in order to see which market distortions are taking place and how we can solve it," the top EU diplomat explains. Borrell goes on: "But let's focus on the real issue. Which is that millions, tens of millions of grains are being blocked or, worse, destroyed. Russia is using hunger as a weapon. And we have to fight against it. The European Union has been looking for solutions. Maybe the solution created some local problems at a certain moment. But the big problem remains the big problem: the blockage of grains from Ukraine. This is the real issue the world has to look at."
We then turn to the Sahel region in Africa, where the EU has spent around €600 million on civilian and military missions over the last 10 years. Borrell has argued for a "re-evaluation" of the EU's strategy, in light of a string of military coups.
"Look, certainly the situation in the Sahel has not improved. There has been a series of military coups and more Russian presence. And one thing has to do with the other, for sure," Borrell admits. He adds: "Now the Wagner companies are becoming the Praetorian guard of the military dictators in Africa. But I think that we Europeans, we have to rethink why and how we are there. But we don't have to go into a self-flagellation. The military coups in the Sahel are an issue of the militaries in these countries. And I want to to pay homage to President Bazoum, who was someone who was supporting an enlightened way of solving the Niger problem, empowering women, preventing girls from becoming mothers at an early age, fighting against corruption….maybe for all those reasons, he has suffered from military rule. He resisted very courageously."
We move on to discuss migration, an issue that's closely connected with the Sahel, and Borrell answers Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s recent charge that Borrell and other political circles are trying to "make mass migration an inevitability".
"It is certainly not true that there is a kind of left-wing conspiracy against Italy," Borrell asserts. "On the contrary. Everybody has expressed solidarity with Italy. The president of the European Commission went there. We are ready to do everything we can in order to support Italy in these difficult moments. But we have to take into account that migration has root causes. Certainly we have to protect our borders and certainly you have to control the irregular movement of people. But migrants are also human beings."
Programme prepared by Isabelle Romero, Sophie Samaille, Agnès Le Cossec and Perrine Desplats
