Russia doesn’t dissuade CIS states from signing agreements with EU

Russia is not going to dissuade CIS countries from signing Association Agreements and Free Trade Area Agreements with the European Union, but Russia calls on them to weigh all pros and cons, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

“Russia is not going to dissuade CIS countries from signing Association Agreements and Free Trade Area Agreements with the European Union - it is their sovereign right, we just call on them to weigh all pros and cons and look once again at the texts of those agreements to see if they correspond to the agreements adopted earlier within the framework of other organizations, in which we participate jointly and for which we bear joint responsibility, and at the same time not to create objective technical obstacles to the possible continuation of our cooperation,” Meshkov said.

In his words, “whatever policy the EU implements in the eastern direction, it should bring together, rather than separate the states, taking into account their interests and historical and geographical peculiarities”.