My latest comments in @KyivIndependent on Old Europe, New Europe, and the question of ‘strategic autonomy’ 🧵 /1 kyivindependent.com/roland-freuden… So the East-West differences on EU ‘strategic autonomy/European sovereignty’ which emerged after #Macron’s recent comments are neither new nor completely eclipsed by the newfound unity on #Ukraine. /2

In yesterday’s #Bundestag debate on 🇩🇪 #tanks (MBTs & IFVs) to 🇺🇦, @OlafScholz defended the indefensible. If he & his party #SPD spent more energy on supporting 🇺🇦 than on finding excuses, the war would look better for 🇺🇦.Let’s parse the excuses 🧵 1/7 politico.eu/article/german… ‘WW3 looming’: it should by now be abundantly clear that #Putin doesn’t need Leopard MBT & Marder IFV deliveries to 🇺🇦 to escalate the war. And, honestly, if we adapt our behaviour after every nuclear threat from the #Kremlin, we should get the white flag ready ASAP. 2/7

If #EU security policy is going through a watershed moment, then this should show in our language. Let’s spell it out: We don’t need ‘strategic autonomy’. What EU needs now is strategic responsibility. THREAD 1/7 ‘Strategic autonomy’ has always been toxic in most places in #CentralEurope because it smacks of decoupling from the #US. Defenders of SA can claim ‘til they’re blue in the face that decoupling is happening anyway & that autonomy refers also to tech, energy & supply chains. 2/7

.@GerardAraud I have no problem with analysis. I have a problem w treating geopolitics like a natural science (I understand you even have an ‘observatoire géopolitique’ in 🇫🇷, very telling) as if there was some kind of gravity law about what Russia’s neighbours can & cannot do./2

https://twitter.com/GerardAraud/status/1295470501498945547

And I have an even bigger problem with your separation of the analytical from the normative, as if these were 2 equal parts of an equation. The solidarity of democrats is part of real life, for me and apparently a whole lot of other people. /3

Monsieur Araud. There is a question I’ve been meaning to ask you (and, admittedly, many other French people) for a long time. What exactly do you mean by ‘geopolitical constraints’? That Belarusians (or Ukrainians, Georgians etc.) have less of a right to determine their future /2

https://twitter.com/gerardaraud/status/1295246796839690241

...because their country is neighbouring Russia? That they must somehow accept living in a kleptocratic authoritarianism because NATO would risk war with Putin was f push came to shove? Is that what we’re going to ‘discuss with Russia’? Give them a little bit of freedom /3