Moscow considers Riga Summit anti-Syrian

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the Riga Eastern Partnership summit, which will take place on May 21-22, 2015, “anti-Russian.” Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich stated this during a briefing.

“Russia has a very negative attitude towards this (the summit - ed.). We will monitor how the summit in Riga proceeds, but it is already obvious that our reaction will be quite tough and principled. We see where this “partnership” is heading and what shades it takes on taking into account the positions of the program participants, primarily from the European Union. Let's wait for the results. The meaning of “partnership” definitely has a pronounced anti-Russian orientation,” Lukashevich said.

Eastern Partnership Summit along with the Northern Dimension and the Mediterranean Union, is one of the annual events of the European Union with its neighbors. The EU Eastern Partnership project allows the European Union and the six states of the former USSR: Ukraine, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Belarus to discuss common problems and projects.

In particular, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia hope that at the Eastern Partnership summit, which will be held in Riga in May 2015, a decision will be made on a visa-free regime with the European Union.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said earlier that he hopes to complete preparations for the introduction of a visa-free regime before the Riga Summit, scheduled for the first half of 2015.

Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili told reporters, summing up the results of his visit to Latvia, where he visited on January 9-10 at the head of the country’s government delegation, that “Georgia must achieve concrete results by the Riga Eastern Partnership summit, which will take place on May 21-22 this year,” he said.

During the visit, the Prime Minister of Georgia made a speech at the international conference “Year of European Development”, and also held a number of meetings with high-ranking Latvian government officials.

As previously reported, in September the European Union expressed its readiness to introduce a visa-free regime for trips of citizens of Ukraine after fulfilling the requirements of the Action Plan to liberalize the visa regime. At the same time, in November, the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine confirmed the possibility of making a decision on visa-free regime with the EU at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Riga (Latvia) in May 2015, since Ukraine fulfills the necessary conditions, one of which is the introduction of the 1 biometric procedure from 2015 in January international passports.

Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia will develop a common position regarding the final Declaration, which will be adopted at the Riga Eastern Partnership Summit, which will be held on May 21-22 this year. This was reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova following the results of a meeting of representatives of the foreign affairs agencies of the three countries held in Tbilisi. “The Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine held a trilateral meeting in Tbilisi, during which a common position of the parties was developed regarding the final Declaration of the Riga Eastern Partnership Summit, which will be held on May 21-22 this year,” the statement says.

Representatives of the parties also agreed to work together on the implementation of the provisions of the Association Agreement signed by the three states and on the Free and Comprehensive Trade Zone with the European Union.