The EU top diplomat Federica Mogherini to meet Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in coming weeks, according to communication of the European External Action Service (EEAS).

In view of the upcoming Foreign Affairs council on Monday,  6/2/2017, Mogherini discussed with Minister Lavrov a range of international issues, starting with the situation in Libya, and the perspectives of the political agreement after the visit of the Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj last week in Brussels, and the renewed committment of the EU to support UN-backed government in Tripoli. In spite of the financial and training assistance the EU pledged to Tripolitanians, the capacity of implementation of these plans remains unclear in fragmented and ravaged by multiple groups of Islamic terrorists country. Five years after Colonel Gaddafi’s assassination (20/10/2011)  Libya stays a failed state with competing centers of power: in the East field marshal Khalifa Haftar in oil-rich Cyrenaica, throwing his support to the Parliament in Tobruk, in the West the  Government of National Accord, hardly controlling Tripoli. Reportedly marshal Haftar has been intensely courted by Russians, in spite of his presumed closeness to US government during  exile in Virginia.

 

Minister Lavrov exchanged opinions on Syria, informing  on the experience of recent talks in Astana, while Mogherini  informed the minister the European initiative with the regional players and on the upcoming Brussels conference on the future of Syria.

Mogherini and Lavrov spoke at length about the escalation of violence in eastern Ukraine, stressing the need to stop fighting immediately, and to focus on full implementation of the Minsk agreements.

 

The exchange between Mogherini and Lavrov took place during a telephone conversation on 3 February 2017.

Photo: illustration