European Leaders Trash Hungary’s Anti-LGBT Law at EU Summit – Foreign Policy

Here is today’s Foreign Policy brief: EU leaders agree on Belarus sanctions but not on Russia policy, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani visits the White House, and Vice President Kamala Harris visits the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Here is today’s Foreign Policy brief: EU leaders agree on Belarus sanctions but not on Russia policy, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani visits the White House, and Vice President Kamala Harris visits the U.S.-Mexico border.

If you would like to receive Morning Brief in your inbox every weekday, please sign up here.

European leaders enter the second day of the European Council today to focus on economic issues following a day of discord, as disagreements on diplomacy and human rights came to the fore in Brussels.

The most heated words were reserved for Hungary, as EU member states lined up to condemn a law recently passed by the Hungarian parliament outlawing the portrayal of content featuring gay or transgender people. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte led the criticism, telling reporters that Hungary must respect fundamental human rights “which are not negotiable—or they must leave.”

While Hungary has few defenders of its anti-LGBT law, members are more evenly divided on a path forward for relations with Russia. A surprise proposal announced by France and Germany on Wednesday called for a resumption of high-level engagement with Russia, frozen since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Biden envy. Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz welcomed the Franco-German proposal, citing Europe’s proximity to Russia, and lamented that Europe could not match the summit between U.S. president Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. “The EU cannot simply watch as the U.S. and Russia are having a dialogue,” Kurz said.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis voiced his opposition to the plan, telling the Financial Times that a high-level meeting could be seen as a reward for Russia’s unpredictable behavior in the region. “To fall into a trap once or twice may be regarded as a misfortune, but to continue doing so decade after decade looks like historical myopia,” Landsbergis said.

In the end, EU leaders failed to agree, offering a watered-down statement promising to “explore formats and conditionalities of dialogue with Russia.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel will not have the chance to make the case a second time, as a new German leader will be installed once the European Council meets again in October.

Belarus sanctions. EU members were united when it came to Belarus, approving sweeping sanctions against Russia’s neighbor for the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in May in order to arrest a Belarusian dissident. The EU actions go far beyond the individual level sanctions imposed so far, targeting core sectors including potash, Belarus’s primary export, as well as petroleum products and tobacco.

As Vladislav Davidzon writes in Foreign Policy, EU treatment of Belarus is driving the country’s autocratic leader Aleksandr Lukashenko closer to Russia. The Kremlin “doesn’t actually want to be stuck with the aged, incompetent, brutal, and increasingly erratic Lukashenko,” Davidzon writes, but, for now, it sees no alternative.

Biden’s Afghan summit. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and chairperson of the High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah visit U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House today to “highlight the enduring partnership” between the two countries, according to a White House statement.

The talks come as Taliban forces have swept through northern Afghanistan in recent days, capturing towns and stoking fears of an imminent governmental collapse. As Michael Kugelman wrote in a preview of the meeting in Thursday’s South Asia Brief, Biden will likely bring a message of reassurance, although Ghani will want more concrete commitments from the U.S. president.

Biden’s promise to fully withdraw from the country was put into question on Thursday when the Associated Press reported that at least 650 U.S. soldiers will remain in the country to help guard the U.S. Embassy and secure Kabul’s airport.

Harris’s border visit. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visits the U.S. border with Mexico today, appearing to cave to months of pressure from Republicans who have demanded such a visit and one week after former President Trump announced his own border appearance on June 30. White House sources have rejected the notion that Harris’s visit is a response to opposition pressure. Harris, who has been tasked with addressing immigration from the southern border, will travel to El Paso, Texas, with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The trip comes amid a shake-up in the U.S. border patrol agency, after it was reported on Wednesday that its leader Rodney Scott, appointed in the final year of the Trump administration, would be removed from his post.

Russia vs. U.K. in the Black Sea. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said his country would respond aggressively to any attempts by other countries to enter waters off Crimea that it deems Russian territory. Referring to Russia’s allegation of measures it took to deter the HMS Defender, a British ship that sailed close to Crimea on Wednesday, he said Russian forces “may drop bombs and not just in the path but right on target.”

Speaking to the BBC, the Defender’s captain, Vince Owen, said the vessel’s path was deliberately taken to uphold its right to navigation in an area it deems part of Ukraine’s territory. Ukraine and the United Kingdom deepened naval ties on Wednesday, when the two countries signed an agreement to boost Ukraine’s naval capabilities and create new naval bases in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.

French elections. French voters return to the polls on Sunday for the second round of regional elections as Marine Le Pen’s National Rally attempts to win control of one of France’s 18 regions for the first time. National Rally has targeted Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur as its most promising region, but its chances of victory were reduced this week as the Green party candidate pulled out to boost National Rally’s rival, Renaud Muselier of the center-right Republicans.

Canada’s Indigenous reckoning. An Indigenous group announced the discovery of the remains of as many as 751 people, mostly children on the site of a former boarding school in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan on Thursday. It is the largest such discovery to date, and comes after 215 unmarked graves were uncovered on the grounds of a former boarding school in British Columbia. The revelations have led to increased calls from Indigenous groups for greater independence. The findings have spurred a search in the United States at former boarding schools which were similarly used as a way to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children. This week, China used the example of Canada’s past actions toward its Indigenous peoples to deflect criticism of its treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.