Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed the belief on Thursday that German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas presented Berlin's chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in a rude, undiplomatic and even Russophobic manner
MINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th November, 2020) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed the belief on Thursday that German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas presented Berlin's chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in a rude, undiplomatic and even Russophobic manner.
Germany will chair the committee from November to May 2021. Berlin's priorities include "upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law" and "bringing Europe closer to the people."
"I think it is not a big secret that Heiko Maas presented the program for the next six months ... in a politicized manner, his tonality was inappropriate, I would even say it was rude and undiplomatic," Lavrov said at a press conference.
The Russian foreign minister also recalled that Maas had made many "Russophobic statements," including "groundless accusations" related to Crimea, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria and Ukraine's breakaway south-east.
"His comments on the Nagorno-Karabakh agreement were rather strange as well," Lavrov added.
