Brussels, 25/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - Agreeing to meet Uzbek President Islam Karimov in Brussels on Monday 24 January (see EUROPE 10300) was “the right thing to do”, Commission President José Manuel Barroso said, in similar vain to the secretary general of NATO (see article below), on Tuesday 25 January. Of course, given the very poor human rights situation in his country, Karimov made “an uncomfortable guest”, but if the EU wanted to play a role in the world, it would have sometimes to agree to talk to some not very pleasant leaders, Barroso said at the Brussels Think Tank Dialogue (see article above). “There was no reason Mr Karimov should not come” to Brussels, there being no sanctions against him or his country, Barroso said. He stated, too, that “a full hour” of the meeting had been devoted to human rights. The Uzbek human rights “record is bad and I said it to him”, Barroso indicated. And anyway, if the likes of Angela Merkel or the King of Spain can meet the Uzbek president, then why not the European Commission, he wondered. (H.B./transl.rt)