ForMin Aurescu:Way Borrell's visit was organised shows Russia is engaged in confrontational stance with the EU

Minister of Foreign Affairs Bogdan Aurescu appreciated on Tuesday that the way the visit of the head of the EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell was organised, the way the press conference following the talks in Moscow was organised and the expelling of European diplomats that have taken place, all these show that Russia is rather "engaged in confrontational stance" with the EU rather than one of openness. The clarifications were made during joint press statements held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) headquarters, together with Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, Ivan Koreok, on an official visit to Bucharest. "We could not help talking about the relationship between the EU and Russia. In fact, in just a few days, on February 22, in Brussels, we will discuss at the Foreign Affairs Council about the relations between the EU and Russia. On this occasion, we will talk about the whole context that has recently been created in the relationship between the EU and Russia. As you know, Romania condemned the detention of political opponent Alexei Navalny on his return to Russia, and then his conviction. We could not help but note that the way in which the visit of the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Mr Borrell, was organised, the way the press conference following the Moscow talks was organised, including the expelling of European diplomats that took place during that visit, all these aspects show us that Russia is engaged in confrontational stance with the EU rather than one of openness," Aurescu said in the press statement. He mentioned that all these issues will be addressed during Monday's talks in the Foreign Affairs Council "in order to draw the necessary conclusions and take the necessary measures". For his part, Ivan Korcok said it was important to hold "very in-depth" debates on Russia-EU relationship, saying that it has recently "shown some negative developments". "I think it is very important to have very in-depth debates on the relationship between Russia and the EU, on the visit that was mentioned earlier, but also from the perspective of what the EU wants to do, in order to have a relationship with Russia, which, whether we like it or not - has recently shown some negative developments. I do not believe the EU can be accused of wanting a confrontation with Russia. We, in fact, respond to Russia's actions in the past years and the worsening of the situation. And here I am thinking of the annexation of Crimea and the actions in eastern Ukraine," said Ivan Korcok. AGERPRES (RO - author: Irinela Visan, editor: Mihai Simionescu; EN - editor: Simona Iacob)

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