5 March 2014
Sikorski does not rule out
sanctions against Russia on Thursday’s EU summit, PAP dispatch of 5 March 2014
Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski does not rule out
that Thursday’s EU summit on Ukraine will impose sanctions against Russia. In
his view, there is little sign of de-escalation of Russian activity in Crimea,
quite the opposite.
In Paris, Sikorski took part in a meeting of foreign
ministers of France, Germany, the UK and Italy, who looked at ways of
addressing the situation in Ukraine. The talks were also attended by chief of
EU diplomacy Catherine Ashton, as well as representatives of the OSCE
chairmanship and the UN. The ministers did not succeed in bringing about a
meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers.
“Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to get the foreign
ministers of Russia and Ukraine to talk. Poland insists that meetings on
Ukraine should be held with the participation of Ukraine," Sikorski said
after the meeting. He added that the best solution would be for “the
governments of Russia and Ukraine to explain to each other their differences,
and mutually agree a way out of the crisis.”
During a bilateral meeting in Paris, US Secretary of
State John Kerry tried to bring round Russia’s top diplomat Sergey Lavrov to
holding a direct meeting with the Ukrainian side.
The chief of Polish diplomacy said that in Crimea and
eastern Ukraine “there is unfortunately little sign of de-escalation; quite the
opposite, more and more Russian troops are pouring into Crimea, with regional
putsches flaring up in the east of Ukraine.”
Asked whether Thursday’s meeting of EU heads of state
will impose sanctions against Russia, the minister replied “I can’t rule this
out.”
“We want our relations with both Ukraine and Russia to
be as good as possible, but what we’re seeing in Crimea must meet with a
reaction; I think that the international community cannot allow a practice to
become established whereby a leader can presume to deploy troops in a
neighbouring country once he concludes that the rights of his ethnic minority
have been violated,” said Sikorski. He added that peoples of the former Soviet
Union are well aware of this. “We cannot accept this,” he noted.
He said that the meeting on Wednesday outlined “a
scenario” for Thursday’s meeting of EU leaders. Asked which sanctions are being
considered, he replied that this is now subject to “intense diplomacy.”
Catherine Ashton has recently talked about the
possible suspension of bilateral talks with Russia over visa liberalization and
a new EU-Russia agreement, as well as other steps. Earlier, EU countries
decided to stop their preparations for the G8 summit in Sochi this coming June.
On previous occasions Sikorski also mentioned visa and financial sanctions
being tabled for discussion.
http://www.msz.gov.pl/en/
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