EU official hopes for resolution to Russia/Ukraine row

A top official of the European Union (EU) visiting Trinidad and Tobago said on Tuesday the Russia/Ukraine stand-off had "come out of the blue" and he ardently wished it could be resolved by diplomatic talks instead of any escalation.

Brian Glynn, head of the Americas region of the EU's diplomatic service and combined foreign and defence ministry, known as the European External Action Service, was introduced to reporters by EU ambassador to TT Peter Cavendish at his St Ann's residence.

Based in Brussels, Belgium, Glynn is visiting the Caribbean with EU deputy director-general for international partnerships Myriam Ferran.

Newsday asked Glynn, a past Irish ambassador to Brazil, about the EU's concerns about the Russia/Ukraine conflict. Saying it had come out of the blue, Glynn said 130,000 Russian troops were on Ukraine's border. He said Russia had asked that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) now limit its membership, effectively back to its 1997 position.

Glynn said Russia should now engage in talks around the diplomatic table, rather than having thousands of troops at the Russia/Ukraine border.

He described the present situation as "a tense stand-off" but said the EU hopes it will move into the diplomatic space.

Glynn said, to the EU, Russia was a neighbour and one which supplied the EU with fuel.

He said while it was a tense time, the EU would always stand for a peaceful resolution.

Glynn said the large number of EU leaders who have visited Moscow to try to help resolve the conflict indicated the EU's door was always open.

"The last thing we want is conflict in our region," he said. Glynn holds a doctorate in history and Spanish.

Earlier, Cavendish said the EU hoped to renew its links to TT that may have weakened owing to the covid19 pandemic. He, Glynn and Ferran met the Prime Minister on Monday.

Cavendish hoped the EU could help restore TT to its former glory in cocoa production, lamenting the decline in TT's former production declining from once supplying 20 per cent of the world market. He praised TT as having the world's best cocoa research facility and for its record of the genetic details of cocoa known as a genome.

Cavendish promised to soon launch a webinar on cocoa, to be followed by one on eco tourism and another on the maritime sector.