BRUSSELS, March 16. /TASS/. The European Union obviously wants to make another attempt to form a wide anti-Russian coalition after the West has failed to isolate Russian in the global arena, the Russian mission to the European Union told TASS on Thursday commenting on the EU plans to call the first Schuman Security and Defense Partnership Forum on March 20-21.
Along with the 27 European Union member nations, forty-five more countries and international organizations have been invited.
"Initially, the European Union was sure that it would succeed in isolating Russia in the global arena. But Brussels has failed to do that at once and it could have never done it. And now the European Union seems to grow wiser and is staking on forming various anti-Russian coalitions hiding behind an allegedly unifying agenda. Whereas the European Political Community rests on some sort of ‘democratic values,’ in this case, security matters are in focus," the mission said in a commentary.
"In the current geopolitical environment and in view of the EU’s goal of defeating our country strategically, it would be naive to think that the upcoming forum will focus on real security threats facing the international community rather than the issue of artificial confrontation with Russia," it said, adding that "the European Union’s another attempt to impose its twisted vision of the global processes on third countries, which value independence in their foreign policy actions, is doomed to failure."
The European Union External Action Service (EEAS) said on Wednesday defense ministers from the 27 EU countries and 45 partner states, as well as representatives from international and regional organizations, including the United Nations, NATO, OSCE, the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, the Arab League, analysts and security and defense experts have been invited to the forum, which is planned to be held every two years as part of the implementation of the EU’s Strategic Compass, adopted in March 2022.
A diplomatic source told TASS earlier that the forum will focus on the conflict in Ukraine.