The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, Jose Manuel Albaresdistanced himself this Tuesday from the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and urged the bloc to “defend” the rules-based international orderclaiming that “the opposite is disorder.”
In the press conference after the Council of Ministers, Albares indicated that the Executive “identifies” with the position of the president of the European Council, Antonio Costawho had already distanced herself from the community president.
Specifically, Costa has advocated for “guaranteeing that the world remains based on rules” and has defended “multilateral solutions”, in response to the statements of Von der Leyen, who said that “you can no longer trust” this international system as “the only way” to defend your interests in the face of threats, within the framework of the attack by the United States and Israel against Iran.
“Europe has to defend the international order because the alternative is disorder, not order, and there is no opposition between an old order and a new one that would replace it,” explained Albares, who insisted that the current system “establishes virtuous relations” between States.
Involution
Albares believes that You have to choose between “right or force”; peace and peaceful relations between States or the use of war as an instrument of foreign policy; progress or historical involution”.
Furthermore, he has pointed out that the current international order is not only “a legal construction”, but is the basis of “multilateralism” that allows us to face the current “serious challenges”, among which climate change and migratory flows have stood out, and that makes “development and economic growth” and “free trade” possible.
Finally, the head of Foreign Affairs recalled that the European Union “is a construction based on rights that protect all its members and on treaties” and that the “mission” of the European Commission is to be a “guarantor” of compliance with both.
