The leaders of the G7 countries have touched on the issues facing Ukraine and Belarus during the ongoing summit's session on foreign policy, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Saturday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th June, 2021) The leaders of the G7 countries have touched on the issues facing Ukraine and Belarus during the ongoing summit's session on foreign policy, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Saturday.
"Session on foreign policy: we discussed the EU's Eastern neighbourhood at length," von der Leyen wrote on Twitter.
On Ukraine, von der Leyen said that the G7 "supports Ukraine's territorial integrity" but added that the country needed further reforms to create "strong institutions acting based on the rule of law."
In a separate Tweet, the European Commission president said that the G7 leaders were "very concerned" by the current political situation in Belarus, following the country's presidential election last year that saw incumbent Alexander Lukashenko register a landslide victory.
The European Union recently imposed a series of fresh sanctions on Belarus after a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius made an emergency landing in Minsk on May 23.
The plane was carrying Roman Protasevich, the founder of the Nexta Telegram channel, who the Belarusian government had labelled an extremist. Protasevich was detained by Belarusian law enforcement after the passenger jet touched down in Minsk.
Von der Leyen said that G7 "cooperation" would make the bloc's sanctions against Belarus stronger.
G7 heads of state are currently holding an in-person summit at Carbis Bay, in the English county of Cornwall. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged leaders to learn the necessary lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure that future outbreaks of infectious diseases do not turn into pandemics.
