site.btaForeign Minister Mitov: Crisis in Ukraine Strengthens EU Unity

Foreign Minister Mitov: Crisis in Ukraine Strengthens EU Unity

Brussels/Sofia, March 22 (BTA) - In a speech at the Young
Professionals Summit of the Brussels Forum, Bulgarian Foreign
Minister Daniel Mitov said that the crisis in Ukraine has lead
to greater unity in the EU and to strengthening the
trans-Atlantic link, Mitov's Ministry said in a press release.
Mitov participated in a discussion on "Sanctions and Security:
Transatlantic Strategies or Discord?".

Mitov said that the international relations are built on trust
and when it is broken, its restoration is very difficult and
takes much time. The Minister said that the EU sanctions against
Russia are the sole alternative to a harder scenario. "We
enforce the sanctions not because we want to but because we are
forced to. The decision to annex Crimea and destabilize Eastern
Ukraine was made in Moscow. We cannot but defend the values we
believe in because the price we will pay later will be much
higher than the price we pay now," Mitov said.

He went on to recall the conflict in the Transnistrian region
and Georgia. "We neglected Russia's conduct for a long time
thinking that our good will, combined with a desire for
political and economic cooperation will solve these problems.
Regretfully, this did not happen so that a new approach is
necessary," Mitov said, adding that the crisis in Ukraine might
not have happened if Europe had defended its values earlier.

In Mitov's words, the sanctions are painful for the EU as well
but the Union will survive them. "They are not just an economic
tool, they are a sign of political isolation in which a country
finds itself," he said.

The Bulgarian Foreign Minister said that the matter with
exchanging the sanctions relates to the implementation of the
Minsk Agreements. He said the agreements must be enforced, there
must be an end to people dying so that things move on to a
peaceful and diplomatic solution of the problems.