Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-002847/2025
to the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Rule 144
Hermann Tertsch (PfE)
The same Ukrainian intelligence sources that warned that North Korean soldiers had been deployed to the Russian front[1] are now warning that soldiers from the Lao People’s Democratic Republic – a one-party communist regime allied with Moscow and Beijing – will soon join them[2].
The European Union has allocated EUR 550 million to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic for 2021-2025, with an initial EUR 98 million contribution through the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument. In addition, since the country is a member of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Lao Government benefits from other multi-million-euro EU programmes[3].
In view of this:
- 1.What does the VP/HR have to say about the fact that the EU would be indirectly funding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine if Lao soldiers joined Kim Jong-un’s on the Russian front? How is the EU’s profession of unconditional support for Ukraine consistent with it funding its aggressors?
- 2.How does the VP/HR justify the EU providing millions of euros to a dictatorship that is friends with China and Russia?
Submitted: 11.7.2025
- [1] https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-north-korea-troops-9d83c419ef741259d09860b576b8a27d
- [2] https://kyivindependent.com/russia-seeks-to-involve-laos-in-war-against-ukraine-military-intelligence-claims-06-2025/
- [3] https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/countries/lao-peoples-democratic-republic_en