Taoiseach Micheal Martin flew to Brussels February 10th to meet European Union’s top liberal technocrats from Antonio Costa, President of the European Council, to Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament.
The trip further saw Martin attending French President Emmanuel Macron’s artificial intelligence summit in Paris alongside leaders such as India’s Narendra Modi and U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance.
Martin’s meetings drew the ire of the Russian Ambassador to Ireland, with particular issues taken with hawkish comments given by the Taoiseach to various media outlets in past weeks.
Discussing prior meetings with European leaders, Martin told Irish Examiner February 7: “I was listening to country after country, and I was thinking; there’s no awareness in Ireland about this at all. It’s not that Europe wants a war — it doesn’t, obviously it doesn’t want a war — but there’s real fear in Europe about the Russian agenda.”
A public statement was released by Yuriy Filatov, the Ambassador of Russia to Ireland February 10 regarding the Taoiseach’s comments, in which he highlighted the embassy’s disapproval of Martin’s discussion of the “Russian threat” to Europe and Ireland, which he claimed the Irish public was “blissfully unaware” of.
The Ambassador reiterated the Russian government narrative of the Ukraine war, calling the Ukrainian government a “Russophobic regime” which is “based on ultra-nationalist, neo-nazi platform” policies. Filatov again warned the Taoiseach, saying “that is where the real threat lies and it is a direct threat not only to Russia, but all Europeans. Perhaps, the Taoiseach could give serious consideration to that.”
The Irish government has previously caught flack from Moscow for confiscating Russian financial assets. Ambassador Filatov warned this “outright theft” would see Ireland face “inevitable” consequences.
The Taoiseach is brushing shoulders with people that the Irish government is not fully prepared to negotiate with. Whether it be the European Union or the Russian government, Ireland is at a disadvantaged position for its irresponsible conduct on the world stage and being so willingly swept up in the currents of media cycles and political trends.
If the Russian government is seriously capable of disrupting European countries’ security, and vengeful towards those who have supported Ukraine during the war, the Irish government should be frightened by how much they have rolled the war drums despite the country’s lack of military force.
Our engagement with the European Union has been as a passive partner, and not one actively standing up for Irish national interests. In the context of the Ukraine war, it would be difficult for Ireland to deviate from the European security zeitgeist, but one would hope our government might behave more reservedly in their condemnation of entire countries which it will have to negotiate with in decades to come.
One day the Ukraine war will end, and continental geopolitics will shift. Where will Ireland find itself amidst these changes if they cannot maintain cordial diplomatic relations in the most tense of times?
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