Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Friday he would support holding a Russia-EU summit, as proposed by France and Germany
ROME (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th June, 2021) Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Friday he would support holding a Russia-EU summit, as proposed by France and Germany.
"The discussions on this issue were long and controversial," he said at a press conference following a meeting of European leaders in Brussels.
According to Draghi, the proposal to hold this summit was "a bit of a surprise to many."
"We should attempt to hold a meeting in the Russia-EU format. I said that this should be done," Draghi stressed, noting that these were mainly Northern European countries, "but not only them," that opposed the idea as they are geographically closer to Russia and were blindsided by the proposal.
He added that for now, the discussion of the summit has been suspended. However, Draghi remarked that Italy still considers it important to engage with Russia on economic and climate issues, as it is an important international partner.
At the same time, open dialogue should be maintained on such issues as espionage, cyber attacks, human rights violations, hacker attacks and disinformation campaigns, and Moscow should show progress on these issues, the Italian prime minster added.
Further details regarding the summit will come out over the next few days, Draghi said.
