The foreign minister remarked how Putin’s friends should help him get out of the mess that he is in.
João Gomes Cravinho, Portugal’s Foreign Minister said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s friends should help him out with the mess that he created. He added that the Russian people should not be suffering due to a huge miscalculation from Putin.
The minister told The Hindu, during Raisina Dialogue, that the western response to war does not expect a change in the regime. It only wants peace and countries are always open to diplomatic talks. “The real challenge of the moment is to help Putin to get out of the difficulty that he has created. Friends should explain to him that when you find yourself in a trench, it is not a good thing to keep on digging” the senior minister stated.
He commented that Russia would have to face huge economic costs for the war and would be in debt to China by the time it emerges from the war. This could have an impact on the Indo-Pacific region.
The senior minister also stated how Russia is losing strategically. “Russia has military superiority which, with some difficulty, is managing to impose on the ground. Winning the war means achieving the objectives at a cost which you find acceptable and, in that sense, Putin is heading for a strategic defeat. His first objective was quite clearly to conquer Kyiv and force the government to capitulate but he failed to do now more modest objectives are being established,” He started to The Hindu
The foreign minister said that Russia will have both short term and long-terms costs from the war. Russia would lose the lives of its citizens and its economic stability. He said that Europe didn’t have a good plan for dealing with Russia’s aggression initially. “There was a lack of strategic thinking in the process of creation of dependence on Russia as an energy supplier” he added. Mr. Cravinho suggested the possibility of the war dragging on for a long time is high.
Published by – Mohit Maurya
Edited by – Archita Menon M
