Luxembourg - Top European Union diplomats on Monday
dismissed as 'nonsense' a claim by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov that the EU is planning to build a sphere of influence in the
former Soviet Union, just 24 hours before a meeting with him.
On March 21, Lavrov said that the EU was trying to build a 'sphere
of influence' in Eastern Europe by setting up a so-called 'Eastern
Partnership' with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and
Ukraine.
But Lavrov 'knows himself that's nonsense. We strongly defend the
point of view that there should be no spheres of influence, neither
for the Russians, nor for us,' said Czech Foreign Minister Karel
Schwarzenberg, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, ahead
of a meeting with EU counterparts in Luxembourg.
The EU's top diplomat, Javier Solana, said that Lavrov's
accusation was simply 'not true.'
'We have a group of countries with which we have a special
relationship because of neighbourhood, because of trade, because of
so many things. We want to establish a mechanism of relationship
which is more stable, more institutional, and that has nothing to do
with our relationship with Russia,' he said.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country proposed the
partnership and is set to take over the EU presidency in July, said
that it was Russia, not the EU, which thought in imperialist terms.
'It speaks for itself that he (Lavrov) thinks in terms of spheres
of influence immediately. This (the partnership) is our answer to the
wishes expressed by these nations themselves to come closer to
European integration,' he said.
The partnership is intended to strengthen the EU's political and
commercial ties with the six countries in question, and to ask for
pro-democracy and free-market reforms in return. EU and partnership
leaders are set to launch it at a summit in Prague on May 7.
Sweden and Poland proposed the partnership in early 2008 to
counterbalance the EU's planned Union for the Mediterranean. After
Russia invaded Georgia in August, EU members agreed to make the
partnership a top priority in a bid to forestall any future
conflicts.
On Tuesday, Lavrov is set to meet EU diplomats in Luxembourg for
long-scheduled talks. The partnership is due to be one of the main
points on the agenda.
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