European Council: Press remarks by High Representative Kaja Kallas upon arrival

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Good afternoon,

We have two busy days ahead - European Council meeting.

First, we start, of course, with Ukraine. We see that Russia is not doing well in this war, and we see that Ukraine is stronger on the battlefield, as well as on the other issues. We were just talking in the Ukraine Support Group - what more can be done to support Ukraine, but also pressure Russia, so that they would sit down to a negotiation table. And we will discuss this today.

We have the 21st package of sanctions on the table and I really hope that we can move swiftly with the adoption of that because that goes hand in hand with also the deep strikes that Ukraine is doing so that the pressure would mount on Russia to stop this war.

Then, of course, tomorrow we will also have the discussions on the Middle East. There we have seen now the signing of the MoU with US and Iran. It gives really a good basis for stopping this war and opening the Strait of Hormuz. But of course there is also this 60 days for negotiating more complex subjects like nuclear, for example, where we have also offered our expertise because we have done the nuclear negotiations before.

Lebanon, we are concerned what is happening there, and of course, we are also supporting the Lebanese Armed Forces, so that there would be stability, and they would be able to disarm Hezbollah. We know that UNIFIL mission is going to end this year - the talks are ongoing also to have a separate mission - with the different mandate - also to cover that.

Then, we are also discussing the Peace Plan for Gaza. There is not much moving on the peace agreement or the implementation of it, so this is what we will talk about - what more can we do in order to advance peace.