Interfax's Interview

Many international problems cannot be resolved without interaction between the European Union and Russia, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana told Interfax in Brussels.

 Russia and the EU are key players on the international arena, and there are many problems that cannot be solved without their interaction, he said. 

 Solana noted that the European Union is fully aware of Russia's important role in solving today's most pressing issues: Kosovo, the Middle East, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Sudan. We are closely cooperating with Russia on these issues, he said.

 According to Solana, Russia is the biggest and most important neighbor of the European Union, and the EU and Russia have good relations in terms of their strategic partnership. Certainly, there are always issues on which we differ, and this manifests itself now, he said.

 As for the upcoming EU-Russia summit in Samara, Solana said that the meeting will focus on the current state of European-Russian relations, as well as on issues such as Polish meat and vegetable exports to Russia, Russian oil supplies to Lithuania and the recent events in Estonia.

 Solana said he regretted the presence of tensions in Estonian-Russian relations. He said that the situation around the Estonian embassy in Moscow caused serious concern in the EU and that he was glad that the situation was settled recently. It will be easier to build EU-Russian relations with Russia having good bilateral relations with EU members, he added.

 When asked about Brussels' role in the settlement of "frozen conflicts", he said the EU will be ready to assist if the parties to these conflicts want it. The EU is already involved in the Transdniestrian conflict resolution and is negotiating such a possibility with Georgia, he said.

 Asked whether Brussels agrees that Russia may have its interests in the post-Soviet space, Solana said that Russia of course has its legitimate interests, as the European Union does. But the decisions and wishes of those countries’ elected representatives must be respected in the first place, he said.

 Solana said that Russia-EU cooperation in the energy sector is an important component of partnership.

 Energy is indeed an important component of the partnership between the European Union and Russia, he said. We depend on each other in the energy sector and we are aware that this dependence will last. Russia is and will be the main foreign supplier of energy resources to the EU countries and it currently accounts for 25% of the oil and gas consumed in the European Union, he said.

 Regarding the role of the European Union, it will remain a key buyer of Russian energy resources and investor in the Russian energy sector. Diversification of supplies is a normal policy for any country. At the same time the European Union and Russia share a powerful mutual interest in a joint search for ways to put relationships in the energy sector on a stronger and more transparent footing,” Solana said.

 Asked what the EU and Russia must do together to overcome mutual misunderstanding and mistrust, he said, no mistrust exists between the EU and Russia in his opinion. As in any relations, there are differing opinions on and differing approaches to individual issues. But the EU and Russia know each other so well and their strategic partnership has reached such a level of maturity that these problems can be discussed openly an constructively, Solana said.

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