RUSSIAN, EU APPROACHES TO CRISIS SETTLEMENT NOT ALWAYS IDENTICAL …
Interfax News Agency
June 26, 2008
Russia
The upcoming Russia-EU summit in Khanty-Mansiisk will see a traditional
exchange of opinions about security problems on the European continent,
including the so-called "frozen conflicts," among them Kosovo, northern
Cyprus, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transdniestria and Nagorno-Karabakh,
Russian presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko told reporters on Thursday.
Russia and the European Union are equally interested in reducing the
number of "hot points," but often their "practical approaches in this
sphere are not identical," Prikhodko said, referring to Kosovo and
conflicts in the post-Soviet space.
He reiterated Moscow’s position that the use of force in the resolution
of these conflicts was inadmissible.
A settlement should be carried out only through the signing of
agreements between the conflicting parties on a voluntary basis and
with due respect for their positions, Prikhodko said.
He called for safeguarding the existing negotiating and peacekeeping
format and for handling the existing problems in stages.
Russia should take care of the people who found themselves in so-
called uncontrolled territories in conflict zones to prevent them
from feeling isolated from the international community, the aide
said, adding that these people should have access to all mechanisms
of social, economic and other provision.
At the same time, he said that Russia and the EU were discussing
these problems on a regular basis in search for mutually acceptable
solutions that would suit the conflicting parties and serve the
interests of European security.
The summit’s international agenda will include the situation around
the Iranian nuclear problem, the Middle East settlement and the
developments in Afghanistan, Prikhodko said.