Turkey signalled its growing impatience with the EU on Thursday night by warning that its ministers would not turn up in Luxembourg for membership talks until they are sent a copy of the ground rules.
Irritated by the EU's failure to reach agreement on a framework for the talks, Turkey's foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, declared he would remain in Turkey until he is sent a copy.
"Everyone knows there's no point in going to Luxembourg without seeing this document," Gul said, warning that the talks may fail to begin as planned on Monday.
Gul spoke out after Austria blocked an agreement on the ground rules for Turkey's membership talks in a last-ditch attempt to downgrade it to associate EU membership. At a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels, Austria demanded the talks should include -- from the outset -- "alternatives" to full EU membership.
This forced Britain, which is chairing the talks, to convene an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg tomorrow night. Britain, which is Turkey's leading champion in the EU, will be placed in the embarrassing position of telling Gul tomorrow night not to board his plane until the EU sorts out its differences.
"You can't ask the Turks to turn up and then tell them to hang round in the waiting room while Europe sorts out its differences," one EU diplomat said.
Turkey's irritation had been mounting all day. Earlier the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, called on European leaders to prove they are not running an exclusively "Christian club."
"If the EU is not a Christian club, this has to be proven," Erdogan said during a visit to the Gulf.
There is speculation that Austria will cave in at the last minute. It may give ground if the EU is able to make encouraging noises about Croatia's EU membership talks. These were suspended in March after the EU concluded that the country was failing to cooperate properly with the international war crimes tribunal in its attempts to put on trial a convicted war criminal, Ante Gotovina.
Carla del Ponte, the tribunal's chief prosecutor, was to visit Zagreb yesterday to assess whether Croatia is cooperating. Del Ponte will then report to a special taskforce of EU foreign ministers on Monday. The taskforce will then interview Croatian ministers.
Austria says there is no link between Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, and Austria's near neighbor, Croatia.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
RELEASE: The move follows Washington’s removal of Havana from its list of terrorism sponsors. Most of the inmates were arrested for taking part in anti-government protests Cuba has freed 127 prisoners, including opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, in a landmark deal with departing US President Joe Biden that has led to emotional reunions across the communist island. Ferrer, 54, is the most high-profile of the prisoners that Cuba began freeing on Wednesday after Biden agreed to remove the country from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors — part of an eleventh-hour bid to cement his legacy before handing power on Monday to US president-elect Donald Trump. “Thank God we have him home,” Nelva Ortega said of her husband, Ferrer, who has been in and out of prison for the
RSS