Yerevan and Minsk refuse to sign the Eastern Partnership declaration if it contains “Crimea annexation” definition
21.05.2015,
10:55
Armenia and Belarus refused to sign the final statement of the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga if it contains the “illegal annexation of the Crimea” definition.
YEREVAN, May 21. /ARKA/. Armenia and Belarus refused to sign the final statement of the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga if it contains the “illegal annexation of the Crimea” definition.
The participating countries have developed a compromise text that reflects the difference in the positions, Reuters reported referring to diplomatic sources.
The fourth Eastern Partnership summit in Riga opens on Thursday. It is an EU project to develop cooperation with the post-Soviet countries. Three countries, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, singed the EU association agreement in 2014. The Russian permanent representative to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said earlier the elaboration process of the final declaration is quite intense with some countries wanting to strengthen the anti-Russian emphasis and with the others opposing it.
The compromise text of the declaration will still contain EU’s condemnation of the “annexation of the Crimea”, but will also describe partnering countries’ stances, Novosti-Armenia reports referring to RIA Novosti.
These are not simple talks, one of the diplomats told the agency after the negotiations over the declaration in Brussels.
The draft declaration will be discussed today by foreign ministers of the EU countries and six partnering countries.
Some 95.5% of voters in Crimea supported joining Russia in a referendum held on March 16, 2014. Russia’s Putin said the referendum was held in line with the international law and the UN principles, but EU and US condemned it as illegal. –0--
