Moscow Interested in EU-Russia Summit Success - 17 October, 2002 - News

A RIA Novosti correspondent informs that Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov says that Russia is interested in the success of the upcoming Russia-EU summit. On Thursday, the minister spoke at a press-conference after talks held with the key figures among the EU leaders. He pointed out at that Russia will actively contribute to the success of the summit scheduled for November in Copenhagen. Igor Ivanov is sure that the results of the forum should “reflect the character of strategic partnership between Russia and EU.” The summit was the main issue on the agenda of the recent talks, the minister says.

Igor Ivanov was asked if the Russia-EU summit will take place if the problem connected with the Russian city of Kaliningrad isn’t settled by November 11. The reply was that “all parties are interested in the soonest possible settlement of the problem.” There are still some unsettled problems between Russia and the EU concerning Kaliningrad, but they are being worked on, and important consultations are being held on the problem. Today’s meeting with the key EU key was devoted to thorough preparation for the upcoming summit.

The RF foreign minister pointed out that Moscow has mentioned several times already that good relations with the European Union were among the strategic goals of Russia’s foreign policy. Igor Ivanov added that every problem connected with this should be settled in a manner of good partnership. “Our objective is to continuously advance, and we hope that the summit means this advancement,” the RF foreign minister stressed.

In his turn, Denmark’s Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller (Denmark is currently the EU chairman) said: “We hope that we’ll find a solution to the problem with Lithuania’s participation. This solution should observe the Shengen Treaty and the interests of the Russian people.”

Igor Ivanov stated that the parties agreed to continue consultations on important problems to find a solution acceptable for all parties. The minister says that the talks also touched upon the Middle East problem and the situation with Iraq and the problems of cooperation in the struggle against terrorism. As it turned out, the parties share the same opinion on important international problems.

RIA Novosti

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Read the original in Russian: https://www.pravda.ru/world/10597-russia/

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