Head of EU Diplomacy said that Europe is interested in the cooperation with Russia; however, the sanctions will remain until the complete fulfilment of Minsk agreements.
On Monday, April 24, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini had meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergei Lavrov, Correspondent.net reports quoting RIA News.
During the meeting, the Head of European Diplomacy noted that the European Union is interested in the cooperation with Russia and has the wide range of questions for discussion. In the meantime, she added that “it would be absurd to consider each other strategic partners and have mutual sanctions – it is not the type of relationships, which partners usually have”.
“Let’s not pretend that since 2014, nothing changed for worse”, Mogherini said.
Regarding the anti-Russian sanctions, EU representative said that they are not the purpose; for the European Union, this policy is aimed at ending the conflict in the east of Ukraine through full realization of Minsk agreements, other sanctions are connected with the annexation of the Crimea, UNIAN reports.
“Hereourpointsofviewultimatelydiffer. We consider that it is the violation of international right and we exchanged with these arguments many times”, sheemphasized.
Mogherini informed that she discussed with Lavrov how to make so that Minsk-2 is fully realized as it is discussed with the authorities of Ukraine.
“The sanctions are correlated to it… We will not return to what happened in 2014, but we certainly consider the reasons for this conflict in different ways”, the diplomat noted.
Lavrov, in his turn, called sanctions as the artificial problem.
“Regarding the sanctions, they came to the fore in our conversation. You know, we did not touch this question, but they came to the fore, because they are the part of those artificial problems, which are accumulated in our relationships with the European Union”, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia said.
It was previously reported that during her first visit in Moscow, Mogherini will discuss with Lavrov the situation in Ukraine, Syria, Lebanon and Afghanistan, the Iran’s nuclear program as well as bilateral relationships of Russia and EU.
