Could Ireland be involved in the Ukraine peace negotiations?

Lucinda Creighton (0:00)

The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman.

Shane Colman (0:04)

On Newstalk, with Ciara.

Now to look back on the last couple of days and those key talks at the Convention Centre in Dublin, we're joined by Lucinda Creighton, founder and CEO of Vulcan Advisory and former Minister for European Affairs. Lucinda, thanks indeed for joining us. Can I start with the comments of, which I think will get a lot of the headlines tomorrow, the Latvian Prime Minister, and you're going to have to excuse my language here. There's no way of polishing up what he said. He said, Europe must grow bigger balls in terms of its dealings with Russia. What did you make of those comments?

Lucinda Creighton (0:44)

Well, he's not mincing his words anyway, I'm glad you said it on air, not me. Look, I think he's not wrong. I think that could be argued when it comes to trade, economic might, you know, across a whole range of areas. I mean, like it is ironic, more than ironic, it's pretty disturbing that the effectively, the security of Europe is continuously for the past number of years being discussed between Washington and Moscow and no European capital and the seat of the European institutions, Brussels, none of them are represented in those talks, not to mention the fact that Kiev isn't represented either, you know, obviously, as the most impacted country in Europe when it comes to security and peace at the moment. So of course, Europe needs to be represented. And I think it's maybe no harm that it was spelt out in those very clear terms by the Estonian PM, Lassie, I'm sorry, excuse me.

Shane Colman (1:42)

Has Europe done enough financially in terms of funding Ukraine's war effort? Does it need to do more in that regard?

Lucinda Creighton (1:50)

Well, Europe is effectively single-handedly funding it at the moment, because the US, since last January, after the inauguration of President Trump, effectively shut down its funding mechanisms for the war operation in Ukraine. So it is Europe. I mean, Germany is by far the biggest contributor followed by the United Kingdom. It's not just the EU, obviously, it's Europe as a continent, because we all have such skin in the game.

So the European Union has every right to be present in any negotiations that take place. But I mean, ultimately, I think the question has to be asked whether there's any sincerity to President Putin's latest indication that he's willing to talk. I mean, I have to say, I'm very sceptical. I don't think he wants a peace deal. But, of course, we want to be at the table and we want to push for a peace deal and we want to use whatever levers are available and Europe needs to be there.

Shane Colman (2:47)

And who from Europe should be at that negotiating table? Because that's been a topic of some discussion, it would seem, over the last couple of days.

Lucinda Creighton (2:55)

Yeah, I mean, look, it is difficult when you have 27 sovereign nations and they guard their foreign policy jealously. And, you know, I understand that. And obviously, as I said, you don't just have the EU. You also have the UK, the second biggest contributor.

So everybody, I suppose, feels they have a right to be at the table. But we have to agree on somebody. And I see officials briefing today at the Convention Centre, saying, well, actually, you know, you need a delegation. Well, of course, you need a delegation. You never, nobody, no country ever sends a peace negotiator without a delegation. But you do need a head of delegation. And they need to agree on who that will be. And really, like obviously, Kaia Callas, as the High Representative for Foreign Policy, is the obvious, she's the most senior official diplomat.

Shane Colman (3:45)

Yeah, very impressive as well, isn't she?

Lucinda Creighton (3:48)

Yeah, she's impressive. And there's no reason why she couldn't do it. She's competent and it's just a question of European leaders backing her. If they choose not to and they say, well, we'd like a former Prime Minister who's maybe not in a current function, that too would be quite normal to send an envoy or a chief negotiator who would be supported by the EAS, the European External Action Service and by the Commission.

It doesn't really matter. We just need somebody. We need them to agree on somebody and that somebody needs to have credibility and needs to have the full support of the bloc, EU plus, including the UK. And I think that's really the key thing. And then we have to engage in as good faith as we possibly can, but without accepting the sort of red lines that the Kremlin has been putting out over the last 24 hours, even since Wittkopf and Kushner arrived in in Baldana last night, you know, the briefing from Moscow, you know, it's contradictory, it's changing all the time. They're demanding a new security architecture, you know, and obviously Europe isn't going to agree to that, nor should we.