Mogherini calls for revised European Security Strategy

Munich, Feb 8 (IANS) European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini Sunday called for revising the European security strategy in response to changing global and regional conditions.

"In a rapidly changing world, we need to have a clear vision of the way ahead. This is why I have launched a process of strategic reflection to guide the EU's foreign and security policy," Mogherini said, according to a Xinhua report.

She noted that the existing European security strategy, proposed by her predecessor Javier Solana, and approved in 2003, was outdated.

"Twenty five years after the end of the old bipolar system, the world is far from being a unipolar one, nor is it truly multipolar," the EU top diplomat said, adding that complexity, conflictuality, interdependence were three elements that should be valued in order to shape the new world order.

She said that the conflicts in Ukraine, Syria and Iraq were the most immediate and urgent challenges the EU aimed to address. "Our strength comes from a balanced mix of diversity and unity," she said.

Mogherini said the EU relied on exhaustive diplomacy as a key instrument for putting an end to the conflict in Ukraine.

Referring to the initiative taken by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande in the past few days to solve the crisis, she said: "We do not know yet whether these efforts will succeed."

Meanwhile, she stressed that "there is no alternative solution to a diplomatic solution for this crisis".