Ukraine crisis becomes major topic of EU foreign ministers talks in Riga

RIGA (Xinhua) - Turmoils to the European Union's eastern and southern borders, particularly the crisis in Ukraine, have topped the agenda of an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Riga this weekend.

Although the meeting in the Latvian capital started off Friday with a discussion on political instability in Libya, the focus soon shifted to Ukraine and relations with Russia.

The talks of the foreign ministers of the bloc's 28 member states primarily dealt with the necessity to ensure the implementation of a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine negotiated in Minsk, as well as tensions between the EU and Russia over Moscow's support for Ukraine's separatists.

EU High Representative for External Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, who chaired the informal meeting, said ahead of the talks that all member states had to work together to bring peace in Ukraine. "We all have to work together on a political solution to bring peace into the country," she said.

During the first day of the Riga talks, the EU ministers agreed it was necessary to step up the monitoring of the Ukraine truce and called on the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to double the number of its observers in Ukraine to 1,000.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius argued that the main problem is the observers' access to Ukraine's border with Russia and key conflict areas.

Talking to the press after the first day of talks, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said that the ministers had a "good and productive discussion" on two main topics - Libya and Ukraine.

Stressing the need to observe the Minsk agreement and preserve the EU's unity, Rinkevics noted at the same time that the EU was "prepared to implement further restrictive measures, further sanctions" in case of a serious deterioration in Ukraine.

As for the discussion on Libya, the EU ministers considered all possible forms of support, including missions and operations that could be explored in the coming days when the political process in this North African country gets under way.

After the two-day meeting ended on Saturday, Mogherini told journalists the EU had a role to play to facilitate dialogue between Ukraine and Russia, particularly on trade and energy.

"We will have again meetings at the ministerial level both on gas and implementation of the trade agreement between EU and Ukraine, and this means we have to obviously be very realistic about developments in Russian attitude," the high representative said.

"The EU today is extremely realistic about the developments in Russia but will never be trapped or forced, or pushed, or pulled into a confrontational attitude," Mogherini said, underlining her conviction that in Europe and beyond "cooperation is better than confrontation".

She also made it clear that the EU would not be pushed into confrontation with its neighbours.