EU’s High Representative Catherine Ashton has met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in New York during the 68th meeting of United Nations General Assembly, Ashton’s spokesperson has announced.

During the meeting, the EEAS chief has stressed the EU’s concern about recent trade and customs measures taken by the Russian Federation towards certain Eastern Partners, saying that they “are not in line with the principles that Russia had subscribed to, such as each country’s right freely to define and conduct its relations with other states in accordance with international law”.

Russia has been accused of imposing sanctions on the Eastern Partnership countries to prevent them from signing trade and visa agreements with the European Union.

Recent trade and customs measures, which have been named by the EU’s Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle and certain MEPs as “pressure”, include sanctions on Moldovan wine, Ukrainian sweets and Belarussian pork.

In addition, Ashton has also raised the situation in Syria and has called on Russia to “build on the positive momentum created by the agreement on chemical weapons to support international efforts for a negotiated settlement to the crisis” in the country. neuropa