Austria is not considering sending a delegation to the Crimean peninsula, Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said on Wednesday, at a meeting with his Russian counterpart
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th August, 2021) Austria is not considering sending a delegation to the Crimean peninsula, Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said on Wednesday, at a meeting with his Russian counterpart.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he would welcome an Austrian delegation to Crimea.
"I do not want to disappoint you, Sergey, but currently we have neither desire nor intention to send a delegation to Crimea. As I already noted, this is a part of the package of disagreements where we have a very clear policy. It is very important to me, as a foreign minister of Austria, to act only in the European context. I will gladly visit Moscow at the earliest opportunity," Schallenberg stated.
Lavrov quipped in response that Schallenberg "does not want to know what is really going on in Crimea," and invited the Austrian minister to Crimea anyway.
Lavrov is on a two-day official visit to Vienna starting on Wednesday. Bilateral relations, economic ties and international issues are on the agenda.
