Baltic States – CIS, EU – Baltic States, Forum, Latvia

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The Latvian Foreign Minister informed his Baltic counterparts about his visit to Kyiv on 10 January, followed by talks in Moscow on 12 January.

The Foreign Ministers of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania expressed concern over the recent escalation of the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the increasing number of civilian victims. The Ministers agreed to continue to pursue full implementation of the Minsk agreements. The Latvian Foreign Minister emphasised that steps forward in the EU's relations with Russia, including with regard to sanctions, depends upon progress on such issues as the restoration of Ukraine's control over its eastern border, drawing a line of demarcation both for military forces and armaments between the parties to the conflict, the release of prisoners by both sides, and a number of other initiatives.

Edgars Rinkevics said that he was committed to continued assistance for Ukraine and other countries of the EU Eastern Partnership Initiative in advance of the Riga Summit this May.

After the meeting of the Baltic State Foreign Ministers, Edgars Rinkevics and the Foreign Minister of Estonia, Keit Pentus-Rosimannus, signed an intergovernmental agreement on co-operation in combating the effects of marine pollution incidents in the Baltic Sea, especially in cases of oil pollution.