Brussels, 21/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - Security and counter-terrorism cooperation was one of the main subjects discussed on 19 October in The Hague during the EU Troika meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. After the meeting, the president-in-office of the EU Council, Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, announced that the EU was going to send its Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, Gijs de Vries, to Moscow to discuss with Russian authorities on concrete action to be carried out to improve cooperation in this field. (See EUROPE of 20 October, p.6, for Mr Bot's article on the subject). Mr de Vries will be seeking assurance that Russia keeps to the same human rights standards as the EU when it comes to counter-terrorism. "We always have to be aware of the human rights factor and observe certain values and certain norms, and we will never resort to the tactics and methods of the terrorists", Mr Bot commented to the press after the meeting essentially aimed at preparing the EU/Russia Summit of 11 November this year. Mr Lavrov said Russia shares the view expressed by the EU on human rights, even in the fight against terrorism, but criticised the West for having giving refuge to terrorist suspects or for having invited them to international conferences to allow them to put their views across. "If we want to protect the rights of honest, innocent, peaceful citizens, they cannot be allowed to roam free in Europe", Mr Lavrov said speaking of such suspects.
Moscow also raised at The Hague meeting the awkward situation of Russian-speaking minorities in the Baltic States, mainly in Latvia and Estonia. According to Russia, these two EU member countries still do not fully implement all the recommendations of European organisations as far as human rights and minorities are concerned, Mr Lavrov said. Latvia and Estonia must respect to the letter the recommendations made by representatives of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Parliament Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and other European organisations, the Russian minister stressed. "We want the framework convention for protection of national minorities to be ratified (by Latvia and Estonia), as Lithuania had done". Mr Bot maintained that the EU insisted on the need for integration and naturalisation of national minorities. "We acknowledge the need to examine these questions and to take the concerns of Russia into consideration. All these issues must be discussed with our Estonian and Latvian partners to find a constructive solution", Mr Bot said.
On the subject of goods transit between Russian and its Kaliningrad enclave, Mr Lavrov recalled that Russia expects the EU to make concrete concessions to resolve the problems that continue to make it complicated to cross from one Russian territory to the other. According to Moscow, since Lithuania joined the EU, difficulties in goods transport have considerably increased with long and costly administrative and customs procedures, whereas the transit of people works without major problems. For the time being, the new formalities increase customs costs by 50% and the cost of health inspections by 30%, Mr Lavrov said. Russia has conveyed proposals for solutions to the Dutch Presidency. "We have been assured that the question we raised in the document was under study. We trust there will be progress in this field", Mr Lavrov said. "This is an important issue on which the functioning of the Kaliningrad region depends as well as the solution to social and economic problems in the region", Mr Lavrov went on, insisting that Moscow was interested in seeking a solution that takes Lithuanian, Russian and European interests into account. Generally speaking, Mr Lavrov said he was satisfied with relations with the EU which are improving all the time despite certain problems.