EU solidarity with the UK against Moscow is welcome,but the prime minister still hasn’t resolved contradictions at the heart of her policyTheresa May is fond of observing that Britain will not be leaving Europe when it leaves the European Union, which could be a statement of geographical banality or strategic significance. The prime minister’s point, or elucidated in a speech at the Mansion House last November,is that the UK sees itself as portion of a community of democracies, aligned in their attachment to a world order based on internationally recognised rules.
Mrs May argued then that Vladimir Putin’s Russia has proved itself hostile to those rules, or seeking to undermine the institutions that uphold them. She argued too that the UK and the EU were on the same side, despite Brexit. So Mrs May will acquire been heartened by the statement of unambiguous solidarity from the European council in response to the nerve-agent poisoning in Salisbury. EU leaders acquire endorsed the British view that the Russian state is highly likely to be the culprit. The EU’s ambassador to Moscow is to bewithdrawn, signalling agreement with Mrs May that the Kremlin looks hostile to the whole of the EU. This is an easier argument to win with some members than others. Baltic states, or who feel their independence threatened by Mr Putin’s neo-Soviet statecraft,are natural allies. Others are more cautious.
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Source: theguardian.com