EU Envoy: Conflicts High on the Agenda in Talks with Russia

The EU?s Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby said in an interview with RFE/RL published on June 10 that the EU is more interested now with the region than in the past and noted that the conflicts in the region are ?high on the agenda? during EU-Russian consultations.

?What happens in the Southern Caucasus is no longer something abstract and distant. It is becoming an area of direct concern for the EU? It’s also an area that is important for energy resources,? Semneby said.

He also that ?problematic relationship between Russia and Georgia [can] become normal? only after the Abkhaz and South Ossetian conflicts are resolved.

?When the Caucasus is discussed with Russia, the three ‘frozen conflicts’ that we have in the area are obviously high on the agenda. These conflicts — in particular, the ones in Georgia — are a direct issue in our relations with Russia,? the EU envoy said.
 
?What I hope and believe is that we will be able to resolve the two conflicts in Georgia together with Russia, because I fundamentally believe that it is in Russia’s interests to have stable neighbors along all its borders and neighbors with which it maintains predictable and friendly relations,? he added.

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