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EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday that there was little indication Russia genuinely wanted to negotiate an end to its war in Ukraine, AnewZ reported.
She said Moscow had signed numerous agreements underpinning European security but had failed to honor its commitments. Kallas spoke in Paris on the sidelines of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers. Trilateral talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States are due to take place in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. Officials from France, Britain, Germany, NATO and the European Commission will also be in the UAE capital.
“So far, they are just pretending to negotiate, because we have not seen any goodwill from the Russian side,” Kallas told Reuters.
She said Russia was bombing Kyiv and civilians, while Ukrainian forces were advancing on the battlefield. According to Kallas, Russia was focusing on civilians to cause as much suffering as possible as a harsh winter approached.
Russia denies targeting civilians. However, it has stepped up air strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and other critical facilities in recent months, while the advance of Russian ground forces in eastern Ukraine has stalled.
Ukraine has retaliated with drone strikes on Russian energy facilities, including sites deep inside the country. Moscow has long accused European countries of disregarding Russia’s security concerns, citing NATO’s expansion to its borders.
Kallas: European security architecture already exists
Jared Kushner, one of the United States’ lead negotiators, said last week that Washington was working on a “broader European security architecture.” The idea has unsettled some Europeans, who have repeatedly said they would not accept any settlement they had not agreed to.
“The problem is that there is already a European security architecture that Russia has also agreed to,” Kallas said. She referred to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, under which Russia and the other signatories undertook to respect Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and existing borders.
“All these discussions should be about how we ensure that Russia actually honors the commitments it has made,” Kallas said.
Differences have also emerged among European countries. On November 5, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni warned that Europe risked becoming irrelevant in efforts to end the war if member states continued pursuing separate diplomatic tracks instead of agreeing on a single representative and strategy.
Kallas said the EU should lead future talks on European security in line with its treaties and institutions, rather than through ad hoc formats. She said major countries also wanted to speak with other major countries, but the EU had clear rules and treaties on matters of European security.
The EU is discussing its 22nd package of sanctions against Russia. Kallas said she hoped losses by US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party in last week’s midterm elections would affect Washington’s approach to Ukraine.
“We hope that pressure will be put on Russia to end this war, and that pressure will also be increased through US sanctions. If we do this together with the Americans, it would be really effective,” Kallas said.
France launches port network to combat drug trafficking
On the sidelines of the same G7 foreign ministers’ meeting, France officially launched a new network linking major ports, customs services and international organizations to improve information-sharing and coordination against drug trafficking routes.
The G7 comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. The group’s foreign ministers are meeting in Paris on November 9 and 10.
The network brings together 14 ports, G7 countries, Brazil and South Korea, major international ports, as well as Interpol, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the International Maritime Organization and the World Customs Organization.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said at a news conference: “This international dimension will allow us to strengthen the important work carried out by the Ministry of the Interior and other relevant ministries to tackle a problem that is causing deep harm to our society.”
The network aims to strengthen cooperation against drugs moving through major seaports by covering the entire supply chain, from production and transit countries to destination markets.
- Facilitate information-sharing;
- Develop operational cooperation between ports and customs authorities;
- Identify smuggling routes;
- Improve detection of containers used by criminal organizations;
- Coordinate the work of maritime, customs and law enforcement agencies.
According to a French government document, the country has signed more than 20 bilateral cooperation agreements to combat drug trafficking since late 2025.
Over the past year, France increased by more than 30% the number of specialized staff working on counter-narcotics in Latin America and the Caribbean. The country said cooperation with North African and Middle Eastern states led to the extradition of more than 20 people in 2025.
