MOSCOW, May 3. /TASS/. EU struggling to formulate common stance on China and Russia; participants in Black Sea grain deal to meet for talks on extension later today; and Ukrainian armed forces set to receive supplies of ammunition from Israel and South Korea. These stories topped Wednesday’s newspaper headlines across Russia. Izvestia: EU struggling to formulate common stance on China, Russia At a recent meeting in Luxembourg, the EU foreign ministers failed to agree on additional anti Russian sanctions, nor could they find common ground on China. While the bloc’s diplomacy chief, Josep Borrell, proposed sending patrol vessels to the Taiwan Strait, a number of European countries are reluctant to exacerbate relations with Beijing. In response to Borrell’s proposal, Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson of the information bureau at the Taiwan Affairs Office of China’s State Council, warned that Beijing was on high alert and keeping a vigilant eye out for any actions that could impair the country’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity. According to Borrell, a document is currently being drafted for an EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Sweden outlining a renewed strategy for relations between the bloc and China. Commenting on the recent failure in Luxembourg to formulate a common stance on China, he noted that although there were many people who do not want to take sides, they must take a stance. Sergey Fyodorov, lead researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Europe, told Izvestia that French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent visit to Beijing testified to the deep rift in Europe over China and the current situation. While Brussels may rebuke Beijing for authoritarianism and infringing on human rights, at the same time the EU is loath to lose the Chinese market and has thus been trying to curb its criticism of China, the political analyst said. Europe has the same strong interest in the Chinese market as the Chinese have in the European market, he contended. Commenting on the EU’s failure to reach a consensus on an 11th package of anti Russian sanctions, Yekaterina Entina, associate professor at the Higher School of Economics (HSE University) and senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Europe, told Izvestia that the mechanism for promoting sanctions was worked out last year, noting that this involved both decision making on the imposition of restrictions and the acceptance of the resulting sanctions regime by the general public. In my opinion, the key task was not so much to deal a blow to the Russian economy, but rather to establish a mechanism for coordinating the sanctions clearly as well as for how they were to be applied by unfriendly nations within the EU itself, Entina explained, adding that they have succeeded in that task.

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MOSCOW, May 3. /TASS/. EU struggling to formulate common stance on China and Russia; participants in Black Sea grain deal to meet for talks on extension later today; and Ukrainian armed forces set to receive supplies of ammunition from Israel and South Korea. These stories topped Wednesday’s newspaper headlines across Russia. Izvestia: EU struggling to formulate common stance on China, Russia At a recent meeting in Luxembourg, the EU foreign ministers failed to agree on additional anti Russian sanctions, nor could they find common ground on China. While the bloc’s diplomacy chief, Josep Borrell, proposed sending patrol vessels to the Taiwan Strait, a number of European countries are reluctant to exacerbate relations with Beijing. In response to Borrell’s proposal, Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson of the information bureau at the Taiwan Affairs Office of China’s State Council, warned that Beijing was on high alert and keeping a vigilant eye out for any actions that could impair the country’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity. According to Borrell, a document is currently being drafted for an EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Sweden outlining a renewed strategy for relations between the bloc and China. Commenting on the recent failure in Luxembourg to formulate a common stance on China, he noted that although there were many people who do not want to take sides, they must take a stance. Sergey Fyodorov, lead researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Europe, told Izvestia that French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent visit to Beijing testified to the deep rift in Europe over China and the current situation. While Brussels may rebuke Beijing for authoritarianism and infringing on human rights, at the same time the EU is loath to lose the Chinese market and has thus been trying to curb its criticism of China, the political analyst said. Europe has the same strong interest in the Chinese market as the Chinese have in the European market, he contended. Commenting on the EU’s failure to reach a consensus on an 11th package of anti Russian sanctions, Yekaterina Entina, associate professor at the Higher School of Economics (HSE University) and senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Europe, told Izvestia that the mechanism for promoting sanctions was worked out last year, noting that this involved both decision making on the imposition of restrictions and the acceptance of the resulting sanctions regime by the general public. In my opinion, the key task was not so much to deal a blow to the Russian economy, but rather to establish a mechanism for coordinating the sanctions clearly as well as for how they were to be applied by unfriendly nations within the EU itself, Entina explained, adding that they have succeeded in that task.