EU-Russia summit short of mentioning Kosovo

EU-Russia summit short of mentioning Kosovo

After the talks, Putin denied that the summit had produced no results.

"We agreed on nearly all issues, except sensitive ones that require additional study," he said referring to the Polish meat ban issue that stands in a way of restarting talks on a new EU-Russia cooperation agreement, given that the current accord that came into force on December 1, 1997 expires this year.

Putin told the pres that the existing international problems were also discussed, including the situation in the Balkans. However, he failed to be more specific and said nothing about Kosovo.

“I hope that Russia and the EU will reaffirm their resolve to join efforts in the interest of peace and stability in our continent and in the world,” the Russian President said.

He stressed that all parties in the meeting confirmed they were oriented towards a constructive dialogue, willing to seek out mutually acceptable solutions to the current issues.

Ahead of the sumit, EU and Russian officials played down their differences, saying they would discuss "problems" in their relations.

It had been announced that the EU would try to convince Russia to back the new UN resolution on Kosovo, based on Martti Ahtisaari's plan.

Shortly before the summit, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, Russian president's aide for relations with EU, said Moscow has no intention of taking part in a "dangerous experiment of division of a sovereign country against its will."

Mikhail Margelov, the President of the Committee for Foreign Policy with the Russian Parliament, also said on the eve of the summit that the European leaders would not succeed in swaying Moscow's position on Kosovo at the EU-Russia summit.

"Russia’s stance is that no decision on Kosovo would be legitimate without consent of both sides", Margelov told Russian media.

He underlined that "Moscow had no reason to defend its position as EU is well aware about the consequences of eventual independence under international control.”

Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin reiterated Russia’s stance on Wednesday, saying that Russia might in theory use its veto, but it would prefer to enable the resumption of a serious political dialogue on the final status of Kosovo.

“Russia told the UN Security Council how it saw the future UN resolution, primarily insisting on the continuation of talks with balanced international mediation in order to provide consent from both sides”, Churkin said.