Without Europe, a Russia-Ukraine peace deal wouldn’t work, Kallas says

If Europe is left out of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, a deal wouldn’t work, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told CNBC at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

“For anything to work it has to have Ukrainians and Europeans as a part of it, because Ukrainians and Europeans are the ones who need to also implement the deal here in Europe so without us, any deal wouldn’t just work,” she told CNBC’s Silvia Amaro on the sidelines of the MSC.

Kallas’ comments come after U.S. Vice President JD Vance stunned European officials on Friday when he delivered an excoriating speech at the MSC slamming European democratic institutions and the state of free speech in the region.

In his address, Vance said the threat to Europe came from within, rather than from adversaries.

“The threat that I worry the most about vis a vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor. What I worry about is the threat from within,” he said, adding that “the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United State of America.”

Needless to say, the comments were met with a stony silence in Europe, and were the strongest signal yet of a widening ideological and geopolitical rift between the two powers since President Donald Trump came to power.

Earlier EU official Kallas responded to Vance’s speech on Friday saying it was like the vice president was “trying to pick a fight” with Europe.

“Listening to that speech, they try to pick a fight with us and we don’t want to a pick a fight with our friends,” Kallas said at the Munich event, Reuters reported.

Kallas told CNBC on Saturday that Europe “can deal with our own domestic problems, the things that we need to discuss with our friends and allies are how we are opposing the threats that come from outside to both of us, to the transatlantic community.”

Finnish officials told CNBC Saturday that Vance’s speech had touched a nerve in Europe, but that there were elements of truth within the address, with European NATO members needing to increase defense spending in future.

Finland’s foreign minister Elina Valtonen told CNBC that free speech had always been prized in Europe and that she had hoped Vance’s speech would have included more “ideas” on how to achieve unity going forward.

“At the end of the day it is about freedom, and who is challenging freedom? It is the autocrats like Russia and China and North Korea. Try having that speech in Russia for instance, talking about free speech or political participation, you wouldn’t have any,” she told CNBC’s Silvia Amaro at the MSC on Saturday.

She also defended political plurality in Europe, noting that the continent was used to coalition governments that often saw ideologically different parties working together.

“I guess what JD Vance wanted to bring over yesterday is perhaps the frustration that he and the [Republican] party has been feeling in the U.S. over the course of the past months. But it’s less so an item in Europe actually, we have many parties in all countries and typically we also form coalitions for government. Just like in Finland and we actually have a populist party in government in Finland too, so it’s not like we’re excluding anyone from power either,” she said.

Meanwhile, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said he believed Vance’s speech was “skewed towards a domestic audience.”

“I was perhaps expecting a rundown on what our transatlantic relationship is today so I was a little bit surprised, but hey, it’s part of being here in Munich, I’m an avid transatlanticist and I want the American-European relationship to continue.”

The advent of the Trump administration was a “wake-up call for Europe,” Stubb said, adding that he agreed Europe needed to hike its defense expenditure and take responsibility for its own security and defense.

“The way in which he [Vance] expresses it is perhaps a little less diplomatic than we’re used to, but I think in substance he is right,” Stubb told CNBC.

The world’s defense and security elite have gathered in Munich for the three-day security summit in which discussions are centered on the future of Ukraine, peace talks with Russia and reshaping Europe’s security and defense architecture.

The summit comes just days after Trump announced that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to start peace talks, and that he had instructed U.S. officials to begin negotiations immediately.

The substance of those talks, and what conditions and compromises Moscow and Kyiv — and the U.S. — are likely to demand as part of those negotiations are a focal point for delegates at the MSC.

The role Europe will play in the discussions remains to be seen, despite Ukraine’s insistence that its most steadfast ally is included in talks.

In a speech to the MSC on Saturday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on European allies to create their own army and to prepare for more Russian aggression in the future, saying Russia was “not preparing for dialogue” to advance peace talks.

He also claimed Kyiv had evidence, which he did not elaborate on, that Moscow was ready to send troops to Belarus this summer.