EU Foreign Policy Chief Slams UN Shortcomings
Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, told attendees at the Oslo Security Conference that multilateral institutions are falling short of their mandate.
"As we heard, the United Nations definitely is not delivering the way it should," Kallas stated during her address.
Kallas recognized that numerous nations desire a system governed by established rules, noting such frameworks provide critical protections for participating countries.
"We are in this situation where we have to really develop this international law further with those countries who want a rules-based order," Kallas said.
While praising the UN Charter's foundational principles as "very good," she identified a critical weakness in enforcement mechanisms, observing that the accountability component is "lacking."
Dependence Creates Vulnerability, EU Leader Warns
The foreign policy chief stressed that Europe must prioritize building independent defense capabilities, cautioning that reliance on external partners exposes the bloc to significant risks.
"We have learned the hard way that (...) having dependencies is making you vulnerable," she declared.
Kallas challenged the fragmented approach of EU defense ministers who "always" reference domestic budgets and sovereign decision-making, arguing that collective defense strengthening could enable the alliance to "actually cover a bigger area."
However, she dismissed proposals for a standalone European military force as impractical, suggesting proponents "haven't really thought this through practically."
"You know that you have one army, you have one defense budget, so if you are already part of NATO, and then you can't create a separate army besides the army that you already have. Because in terms of crisis, what is most important is the chain of command. Who gives orders to whom?" she explained.
Kallas warned that maintaining parallel European and NATO military structures would prove "extremely dangerous."
"That's why I say we have to strengthen European defense, which is also part of NATO. It is really complementary to NATO. Let's not throw NATO out of the window," she emphasized.
Addressing military standardization protocols, Kallas revealed the EU has requested NATO "share those standards and information," stressing the impossibility of helping member states "to develop those capabilities or do them together" without complete transparency.
"All the members need to agree on sharing some of the information that is problematic for some members. If you think about Türkiye and we think about some European Union members, we need to overcome these obstacles, because we really need to share these things, so we can help both organizations (EU-NATO)," she added.
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