MINSK – Belarus would like to avoid any confrontation at the Eastern Partnership summit, which is to start formally in Riga on May 21, Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman Dmitry Mironchik has told Interfax.
“Work on the text of the communique is continuing. With regards to Belarus’s position, it is well known. We favor a non-confrontational nature of Eastern Partnership with a positive agenda, including for neighbors’ neighbors,” Mironchik said in commenting on media reports that Belarus and Armenia refused to sign the summit’s final communique if it made reference to Crimea’s annexation.
Meanwhile, Yerevan has officially declined to comment on Western media reports regarding the refusal to sign the Eastern Partnership summit’s final communique.
“We don’t comment on this information. I can only say that the Armenian president is heading for Riga to take part in the summit,” Armenian Foreign Ministry press secretary Tigran Balaian told Interfax on May 21.
Western media had reported earlier with reference to diplomatic sources that Belarus and Armenia had refused to sign the Eastern Partnership summit’s final communique because of a reference to Crimea’s annexation contained within the document. A compromise communique is expected to be drawn up, in which the European Union and the Eastern Partnership participants’ positions would be set out separately.
