Venizelos Talks with Ukraine’s Interim Government

Relations between Ukraine and Russia are key to more than the immediate region and must be resolved with self-restraint, calmness, dialogue and within international law and conventional agreements, government Vice President and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos said on Sunday, after a meeting in Kiev with President of Ukrainian Parliament and acting President Oleksandr Turchynov and Foreign Minister Andrii Deshchytsia. The Greek official was paying an emergency visit on Sunday as chairman of the EU’s Council of General Affairs, during Greece’s EU Presidency. Venizelos expressed his satisfaction that the interim Ukrainian government has pledged to continue the process of Ukraine’s membership in the European Union by signing the EU’s Association Agreement. Prior to flying to Kiev, Venizelos had met on the same day with the Greek community in Mariupol to assure them of Greece’s support and protection, an issue he brought up with Ukraine’s interim government, which pledged its support. Stressing the acute economic crisis Ukraine is facing, the Greek Foreign minister said that, as he came from a country with comparable experience and relevant know-how, he proposed an international convention to examine how the country could be financially supported, as the intervention of the International Monetary Fund would not be enough. “Greece, as president of the European Union’s Council, wants to contribute to the best degree possible to normalization of the situation in UKraine,” Venizelos said before his meetings in Kiev. KKE leader: Greece must stay out of Ukraine The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) “follows with great concern developments in Ukraine and wants to note especially now that there must be no involvement by Greece in the USA-EU plans for Ukraine, absolutely no participation in this dangerous game of competition with Russia.” In a written statement, KKE Secretary General Dimitris Koutsoumbas said that “it becomes once again obvious what the reactionary role is of the EU and NATO, which are intervening in Ukraine’s domestic issues, even to support neo-Nazi parties in order to serve their geopolitical schemes.” “The Greek people must be on alert. Capitalist crisis and imperialist wars are linked closely, and the populace has nothing to gain from Greece’s participation in these schemes,” he warned. (source: ana-mpa)

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