Czech Foreign Minister Lipavsky announced that he will deal with the issue of resetting relations with Russia
Photo: Vitaly Belousov / RIA Novosti
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky announced that he would consider the issue of resetting his country's relations with Russia. TASS reports.
“I will be looking at how their [Russian-Czech relations] can be reset, improved,” Lipavsky said during his working visit to Slovakia, Slovak Radio reports. According to him, the situation when the representatives of the authorities of the Czech Republic and Russia do not speak is “very uncomfortable.”
During the visit, Lipavsky discussed with his Slovak counterpart Ivan Korchok Moscow's security requirements for the United States and NATO. “The development of a common position [NATO and the EU], which will be respected in Moscow, is, in the opinion of the Czech Republic, how we can help [the search for] a solution to the situation [in relations with Russia]. I am not saying that the position [of NATO and the EU] must necessarily be based on force. It is enough for this position to be unambiguous, “- the head of the Czech Foreign Ministry.
In turn, Korchok spoke out against the creation of new spheres of influence in Europe, referring to the situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border. In his opinion, it is important that the countries neighboring Russia “can freely determine their own foreign policy orientation,” he stressed.
Jan Lipavsky was appointed Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs on 17 December. Shortly before his appointment, he said that he did not know how to get out of the impasse that had formed in Czech-Russian relations.
Earlier, former Czech Foreign Minister Jakub Kulganek called on Russia and NATO to sit down at the negotiating table. According to Kulganek, now the advantage in the confrontation between Moscow and Brussels is on the side of the Kremlin. According to him, NATO is ready for a dialogue with Russia. However, as the minister noted, the Russia-NATO meeting has not been held for two years at the initiative of Moscow.
Relations between Russia and the Czech Republic have deteriorated amid accusations against the Russian special services, which Prague considers to be involved in an explosion at an ammunition depot in Vrbetica in 2014. Russia denies any involvement in the incident. In May, Russia added the Czech Republic to the list of unfriendly countries, which also includes only the United States. Moscow and Prague exchanged the expulsion of diplomats, equalized the number of employees of the embassies.
