The West shows internal divergence over Ukraine crisis
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E-mail Xinhua, February 8, 2015
The 51th Munich Security Conference entered into its second day on Saturday, dedicating more than half of its agenda to the Ukraine crisis, an issue which few who was here a year ago had expected could be fueled from a spark of anti-government protests to a fire of internal war within less than a year.
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Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko attends the 51st Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, southern Germany, on February 7, 2015. [Xihnhua photo] |
Leaders, mainly from the West, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko participated in the discussions on Saturday and expressed a common wish: to immediately find ways out of the crisis which has killed thousands of people.
Merkel, who just came back hours ago from a surprising visit to Moscow with French President Francois Hollande for talks over the crisis with Russian President Vladimir Putin, told her audience that the tripartite meeting was worth an attempt though "it is uncertain whether the talks will succeed".
Lavrov, though questioned doubtfully, and in some occasions aggressively, by western listeners, said Russia saw "good grounds for optimism to issue recommendations for conflict resolution".
Biden, threatening to "impose costs" to Russia, said actions were needed to end the conflicts.
Poroshenko, asking for supports from abroad, said the people in Ukraine were urgently needed to be protected.
Ukraine has become the front line of tensions between the West and Russia, some experts said. The West is united in its "battle" against Russia, imposing economic sanctions which dragged Russian economic growth down to 0.6 percent and forced its government to cut 2015 growth forecast to minus 3 percent.
The discussion in Munich on Saturday, however, showed that the union was divided on key issues linked to their different national interests.
Different stance
"We should have right to defend our territory and our people with the support of the whole world," said Poroshenko, asking its allies to supply defensive weapons which "we will not use ...to the attack".
This was the core divergence within the West: whether military intervention should be involved in resolving the Ukraine crisis.
Slamming Russia for alleged direct involvement in the Ukraine conflict, which Moscow has denied repeatedly, Washington is considering offering Ukraine lethal weapons to boost its fight against militants in the eastern part of the country.
In his speech, Biden said the U.S. government was ready to provide support to Ukraine so that the country can defend itself .
The plan, however, was slapped by Merkel.
"I am firmly convinced that this conflict can not be solved by military means ... the progress that Ukraine needs can not be achieved by more weapons," she said, adding that there were already a lot of weapons in Ukraine and solutions should be concentrated in diplomatic dimensions.
In an interview with German ZDF television, which is to be aired on Sunday, U.S. Republican Senator John McCain said that Merkel's behavior in the Ukrainian conflict was a huge disappointment for him.
"Her behavior reminds me of the policy of the '30s," he was quoted as saying.
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