Mogherini at NATO ministers meeting – Ukraine and Iraq dominate talks

The situation in Iraq is a threat to the security and stability not only of that country but of the entire Middle East and Euro-Atlantic region. Consequently, the foreign ministers of NATO meeting in Brussels agreed on the need to concentrate on a political approach, as Minister Federica Mogherini asserted during a pause in the meeting in which Secretary of State John Kerry reported to his colleagues on his visit to Baghdad. The head of Italian diplomacy advanced the idea that it is necessary to work on a more global strategy capable of preventing conflict and managing post-conflict phases, because the experiences of Libya and Iraq have taught that military intervention alone cannot resolve crises.

Iraq: Mogherini cites need to work with regional actors

In the margins of the meeting, Minister Mogherini held bilateral meetings with president of Kurdistan Mas’ud Barzani and Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Her message to both was that, in order to overcome the crisis, Iraq must encourage the co-existence of all its various social, political and religious components.

Ukraine: Mogherini urges resolving crisis with, not against, Russia

As for the Ukraine crisis, the minister stated that it was the NATO members’ shared intention to resolve the crisis with, and not against, Russia. The new Ukraine foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin invited his colleagues to support the peace plan advanced by President Poroshenko and to do everything possible to see to it that the Russian Federation works in the same direction.