ID :
362759
Wed, 04/08/2015 - 15:36
Auther :

Lavrov stresses importance of efforts by EU, EAEU for sake of common interests

MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/. In the current highly competitive world only concerted action is capable of accommodating the interests of the European Union and Eurasian Economic Union’s countries in the best way possible, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday after talks with his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian. "We have the deepest conviction that in our relations with Europe we - and I mean the other EAEU members, too - should seek to overcome a systemic problem," Lavrov said. "The problem is an old-standing one - either with us or against us. The bureaucracy in Brussels has not changed this mentality." "This is regrettable, because some representatives of the leading EU countries, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande and some others have repeatedly called for replying to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s old-time initiative and entering into a dialogue on ways of forming a common economic and humanitarian space from the Atlantic to the Pacific. When this dialogue begins, I am certain that all necessary solutions will be found that will not cause the countries of our region to confront a false choice." "Creating such a space is a common interest - ours and the EU’s," Lavrov said. "In the current highly-competitive world only concerted action by Europe and Eurasia, on the economic front first and foremost, will be able to accommodate the interests of all countries in the best way possible," Lavrov said. He recalled that Russian President Vladimir Putin back in January 2014 proposed the first step along these lines - a specific and meaningful dialogue on the creation of a free trade zone of the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union (then called Customs Union). "That proposal remains on the table," Lavrov said. "At their meeting in Minsk on February 12 the leaders of the Normandy Quartet adopted a declaration in support of the arrangement signed by the Contact Group members to confirm that they favor closer integration processes in the European continent and in the Eurasian space, including contacts between the EU and the EAEU," Lavrov said. "Regrettably, Brussels’s reaction to our proposal for getting down to practical work to implement these proclaimed goals has been not very active." Read more

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