{"id":48033,"date":"2026-05-20T11:11:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/48033\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T11:11:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:11:17","slug":"europe-considers-sending-angela-merkel-to-reopen-dialogue-with-putin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/48033\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe \u2018considers sending Angela Merkel to reopen dialogue with Putin\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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European leaders are considering sending former German chancellor Angela Merkel to represent the bloc in future talks with Vladimir Putin, according to a report.<\/p>\n

EU foreign ministers will discuss potential candidates at a meeting in Cyprus next week after the Ukraine and the United States voiced their support for Europe to engage directly with Russia over the war, people briefed on the talks told the Financial Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The sources said other contenders to represent the bloc include former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi, Finnish president Alexander Stubb and his predecessor, Sauli Niinist\u00f6.<\/p>\n

Vladimir Putin hinted earlier this month that he would be open to reopening lines of communication with Europe, ideally mediated by Gerhard Schr\u00f6der, who was chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005<\/a>. The EU\u2019s Kaja Kallas promptly shot down the suggestion, suggesting he could not be impartial.<\/p>\n

\"VolodymyrVolodymyr Zelensky, Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin together in 2019 (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Merkel worked with Putin during her chancellorship and has since defended her record in pursuing diplomacy and closer ties with Russia.<\/p>\n

While in power, she faced criticism from the US, Ukraine and eastern European allies over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which delivered natural gas from Russia to Germany.<\/p>\n

After the full scale invasion of Ukraine, she said there was \u201cno excuse\u201d for Russia\u2019s \u201cbrutal\u201d attack and said sanctions over the 2014 annexation of Crimea \u201ccould have been stronger\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, on Monday she distanced herself from the idea that she would be the right person to lead talks with Russia now as she holds no power.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the military support we\u2019ve provided so far is absolutely the right thing to do,\u201d she told WDR on Monday. \u201cI also think it\u2019s right that we do much more to create a deterrent effect beyond our support for Ukraine. What I regret is that, in my view, Europe is not making sufficient use of its diplomatic potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

With US-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine at a standstill, and Donald Trump bogged down in Iran, the US administration has given Europe its blessing to reopen dialogue with Moscow, sources told the FT.<\/p>\n

European Council president Ant\u00f3nio Costa said earlier this month that the bloc was preparing for \u201cpotential\u201d talks with Putin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey know it\u2019s not working,\u201d one told the newspaper of the current effort to end the war. The last round of talks fell apart in February just days before Trump joined Israel in attacking Iran<\/a>, leaving diplomacy up in the air.<\/p>\n

Trump has convened multiple rounds of talks with the warring sides to try to end the conflict, but no peace deal has emerged. Russia, which now occupies around a fifth of Ukraine, wants Kyiv to cede additional territory. Kyiv wants Russian troops to withdraw.<\/p>\n

The warring sides agreed to a short, US-mediated ceasefire from May 9-11, coinciding with the anniversary of the Soviet victory over the Nazis in World War Two. Both sides said fighting continued along the frontline and accused each other of drone and artillery attacks.<\/p>\n

\"VladimirVladimir Putin (R) and Angela Merkel at the Kremlin in Moscow on August 20, 2021 (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Putin this month said he believed the war in Ukraine was coming to an end and that he would be willing to negotiate new security arrangements for Europe, with Schr\u00f6der as his preferred partner.<\/p>\n

But European Union foreign ministers were sceptical that Russia was ready to negotiate sincerely on peace and security for Europe, and dismissed any role for Schr\u00f6der, who has worked for Russian state companies and cultivated a close relationship with Putin.<\/p>\n

Germany’s Europe minister, Gunther Krichbaum, said Schr\u00f6der did not have the credentials to be an \u201chonest broker\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is, and certainly has been, heavily influenced by Mr Putin,\u201d Krichbaum said.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also rejected a role for Schroeder. But he said Europe could be involved in talks that would be \u201ccomplementary\u201d to US-led negotiations to end the war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[572,4,2721,46,29439],"class_list":["post-48033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-europe","tag-diplomacy","tag-europe","tag-horizontal","tag-politics","tag-wld"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}