Without Europe a Russia-Ukraine peace deal wouldn’t work, EU foreign policy chief says

If Europe is left out of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, a deal wouldn’t work, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told CNBC at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

“For anything to work it has to have Ukrainians and Europeans as a part of it, because Ukrainians and Europeans are the ones who need to also implement the deal here in Europe so without us, any deal wouldn’t just work,” she told CNBC’s Silvia Amaro on the sidelines of the MSC.

Kallas’ comments come after U.S. Vice President JD Vance stunned European officials on Friday when he delivered an excoriating speech at the MSC slamming European democratic institutions and the state of free speech in the region.

In a speech to the MSC on Friday, Vance said the threat to Europe came from within, rather than from adversaries.

“The threat that I worry the most about vis a vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. What I worry about is the threat from within,” he said, adding that “the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United State of America.”

Needless to say, the comments were met with a stony silence in Europe, and were the strongest signal yet of a widening ideological and geopolitical rift between the two powers since President Donald Trump came to power.

Earlier EU official Kallas responded to Vance’s speech on Friday saying it was like the vice president was “trying to pick a fight” with Europe.

“Listening to that speech, they try to pick a fight with us and we don’t want to a pick a fight with our friends,” Kallas said at the Munich event, Reuters reported.

Kallas told CNBC on Saturday that Europe “can deal with our own domestic problems, the things that we need to discuss with our friends and allies are how we are opposing the threats that come from outside to both of us, to the transatlantic community.”

The world’s defense and security elite have gathered in Munich for the three-day security summit in which discussions are centered on the future of Ukraine, peace talks with Russia and reshaping Europe’s security and defense architecture.

The summit comes just days after Trump announced that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to start peace talks, and that he had instructed U.S. officials to begin negotiations immediately.

The substance of those talks, and what conditions and compromises Moscow and Kyiv — and the U.S. — are likely to demand as part of those negotiations are a focal point for delegates at the MSC.

The role Europe will play in the discussions remains to be seen, despite Ukraine’s insistence that its most steadfast ally is included in talks.

In a speech to the MSC on Saturday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on European allies to create their own army and to prepare for more Russian aggression in the future, saying Russia was “not preparing for dialogue” to advance peace talks.

He also claimed Kyiv had evidence, which he did not elaborate on, that Moscow was ready to send troops to Belarus this summer.