Russia and the EU fail to bridge differences over Kosovo
Russia and the EU did not bridge the gap over two important political issues – new sanctions on Iran and Kosovo status – at the Friday summit in Portugal.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Monday, October 29, 2007
Russia firmly confirmed its stance that the solution for Kosovo must be in accordance with international law.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin made a new warning to Europe over Kosovo's push for independence,
"Kosovo is obviously a problem between the EU and Russia about how we would like it to turn out", he said, calling for "patience" on Kosovo's future and urging his European colleagues to exercise restraint over the issue.
The Russian president stressed that Kosovo's independence would only encourage separatists elsewhere.
His presidential envoy for relations with the EU Sergei Yastrzhembsky said the positions of Russia and the European Union on the status of Kosovo did not converge at the summit.
Russia once again repeated its position that "there is no reason to hurry and there is no need to speak about the resolution of this issue ahead of time," he said.
The EU, on the other side, is calling for the status issue to be resolved soon.
The EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, stressed that the current situation was not tolerable, and therefore he called on the parties to continue with their engagement towards a mutually-agreed solution.
"We continue to call on the parties to backtrack from their initial positions and to reach an agreed solution at the end (...) We hope it will be reached as soon as possible because both the EU and Russia understand the current situation is simply inadmissible", Solana said.
