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

A RIA Novosti correspondent informs, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov says that Russia is interested in the success of upcoming Russia-EU summit. On Thursday, the minister spoke at a press-conference after the talks  held with the key figures among the EU leaders, he pointed out at that, Russia would actively contribute to the success of the summit scheduled for November in Copenhagen. Igor Ivanov is sure that results of the forum should “reflect the character of strategic partnership between Russia and EU.” The summit problem was the key 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 settlement of the problem.” There are still some unsettled problems between Russia and the EU concerning Kaliningrad, but they are worked on and important consultations are held on the problem. Today’s meeting with the EU key figures was devoted to thorough preparation for the upcoming summit.

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

In his turn, Denmark 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 participation. This solution should observe the Shengen Treaty and interests of the Russian people.”

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