Sir, – Ireland’s EU presidency is an opportunity for peace. Irish diplomats after 1955 helped contain the Cold War. Using Ireland’s UN seat and neutrality, foreign ministers such as Frank Aiken did not take sides in great power conflict, acting instead as disinterested brokers in a way that demonstrated our new independence on the world stage. Europe needs that spirit of diplomatic autonomy today.
Chest-thumping talk of solidarity with Ukraine from Europe was excusable from 2023 to 2025. Today, we see that “solidarity” amounted to funding a US proxy war with the world’s largest nuclear power. Whether this war of attrition ends tomorrow or in four more years, Ukraine will remain partitioned.
We can’t wait that long. Bombing crowded restaurants in Moscow may look like justice to zealots this side of the Danube, but such atrocities put pressure on the Kremlin which endangers us all.
Similar pressures apply in the White House. US president Donald Trump, promised that he “would end that war within 24 hours”. Busy as he is now with Iran, we can see that Ukraine has become a problem.
Leaving aside the dead and the economic damage to Europe (soaring energy costs have hobbled German industry), the risks are growing. This year has seen security scares in Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania. The last four are in Nato.
Ireland’s recent foreign interventions tend to be performative nonsense, concentrating on regions where we have no business or influence, but Ukraine affects us directly, from the 84,100 refugees living here to the cost of heating our homes.
Our presidency ends on December 31st. What a diplomatic coup if Ireland could use that time to broker a Christmas truce between Ukraine and Russia. – Yours, etc,
AIDAN HARTE,
Naas,
Co Kildare.