Italy is helping spearhead efforts to scale back the European Union's sanctions on Russia, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in an interview out Thursday
ROME (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th January, 2020) Italy is helping spearhead efforts to scale back the European Union's sanctions on Russia, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in an interview out Thursday.
"Italy is in the first row when it comes to promoting dialogue and creating conditions for overcoming the sanctions system," Conte told Il Foglio newspaper.
Italy sees sanctions on Russia as a way of resolving the Ukrainian crisis, he said, reiterating Rome's assurances that penalizing Moscow was not an end in itself.
Conte argued however that scrapping sanctions unconditionally in their entirety was not something that Italy was after as he emphasized the need to uphold European solidarity.
The EU slapped Russia with economic restrictions after a conflict broke out in 2014, despite Russia's denial of a role in it. But dissident voices in the EU have been calling to ease the limits that have been hurting trade with the eastern neighbor.
