"You can't fight and negotiate," says Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn.
"You can't shoot yourself and negotiate."
Asselborn knows how slim the chance of a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine war in early September 2022 is if one party - namely Russia - is not willing to negotiate.
And yet voices are growing louder calling for peace initiatives or the resumption of negotiations, despite the Russian leadership's apparent disinterest in such talks.
In the podcast, Asselborn emphasizes that you should use every opportunity to negotiate.
“A window has to open.
When this window opens, the European Union must be ready to help the UN to get us talking," he says, and then clarifies: "There is an aggressor, his name is Russia.
And there is one who was attacked, his name is Ukraine.
And of course the victim must have the first word when it comes to negotiations.«
Until such a window opens, the European Union has more problems to solve: Russia is blackmailing gas-dependent Europe with faltering supplies, while the German energy crisis is causing more problems in other states because the countries are so closely linked.
"If the chemical industry in Germany, let's say, catches a cold, you can still keep your head above water," explains Asselborn.
»But other countries that depend on Germany could be hit very, very badly.
And if not only people freeze and jobs are lost as a result of this war, then one can imagine what difficulties and what challenges we then have as politicians, as societies«.
How can you ensure that each member state is responsive to the needs of its residents - while still maintaining solidarity against the Russian aggressor?
Why is it just as important for the EU to address Africa's grain needs as Europe's energy needs?
And why is there a particular danger of war in the fact that the UN and the UN Security Council are becoming less important?
This is what Jean Asselborn talks about in this episode of »Eight Billion«.
Listen to the current episode here:
