Moscow ready for harmonization of Ukraine's relations with trade blocs - Lavrov
MOSCOW. Aug 25 (Interfax) - Russia calls for a search of economic harmonization in Ukraine's relations with the Customs Union, the CIS free trade area (FTA) and the European Union, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"We are for looking for ways to harmonize Ukraine's relations with the Customs Union, the CIS free trade area and with the European Union in the economic sphere," Lavrov told a press conference in Moscow on Monday.
"We are convinced that with good will and desire, and if guided by the rules of the WTO (World Trade Organization) and other norms of international law resulting from the signed and effective agreements, it is possible to agree on all these issues," the Russian minister said.
"One of these days Russian and Ukrainian specialists held consultations over economic problems. Their interim results will be reported in Minsk tomorrow," Lavrov said.
Moscow has been continually calling for a dialogue in a format that reflects both Ukraine's obligations as a CIS country and the association agreement signed between Ukraine and the EU, the foreign minister said.
"This is an important topic. We have long called for this format of a non-politicized, professional, pragmatic, concrete conversation on how the Ukrainian state's obligations match the CIS free trade area, on the one hand, and the obligations Ukraine is prepared to assume under the signed, but as yet unratified association agreement between Ukraine and the EU," Lavrov said.
"This topic has a lot to do with the current crisis because it was the accusations leveled against president Yanukovych last November that he postponed the signing of the association agreement, which served as a pretext for starting violence and organizing armed protests, and eventually led to a coup," Lavrov said.
"Both until and after that moment, we regularly pointed to the need to sit down and find out how to resolve a situation where Ukraine's obligations, according to what we believe is our objective assessment, run counter to the steps it is planning to make in the framework of its Association with the European Union," said the Russian foreign minister.