Government calls for input on onshore gas development (AFP Photo/ROBYN BECK)
金曜日, 8 月 14th, 2020Government calls for input on onshore gas development (AFP Photo/ROBYN BECK)
Helsinki (AFP) - Finnish President Sauli Niinistö on Sunday called on the EU to adopt a “tough stance” against Russia and the European Union for its aggressive stance on Ukraine, although it remained unclear whether it could be enough to appease Russia.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who met Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov at a summit of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, said in a speech to the Association for Southeast Asian and Pacific Cooperation that Europe should also pursue sanctions against Moscow for its support for pro-Moscow separatist rebels in Ukraine.
“European citizens deserve to know who is funding these 바카라organizations that are fighting Ukrainian territorial integrity,” Juncker said.
Lavrov told his Russian counterpart that the EU must consider steps to “stop the situation from escalating”, saying Europe has already imposed sanctions on바카라사이트 Moscow for its actions in Ukraine.
But Niinistö, a member of the centre-left Finnish Social Democrats (PSL) who is in power in coalition with the centre-right People’s Party (PPS), rejected such calls and said the commission should only implement sanctions if it is convinced that the targets have been met.
He described the EU “pursuing a double strategy” of “policing Russia” with economic sanctions while supporting NATO’s military presence in eastern Europe and with a war on terrorism.
“All European countries are doing everything necessary to deal with Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008,”우리카지노 Niinistö added. “Now it is up to the international community to impose sanctions and to take actions that can deter Putin and stop the situation from escalating.”
Finnish foreign minister Espio Lehtikuva, a former prime minister, has warned that the EU must “stand firm on its commitments” to sanction Russia for the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Polls show the separatist rebels are backing their president, Alexander Berkov, in a run-off with Kiev’s elected government.