(Adnkronos) – The European Union – which has slapped 16 packages of sanctions on Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine – must take part in talks to end the more-than-three-year-old war, Italy underscored on Thursday.
“Europe will necessarily have to be at the table’ in the negotiations to end the war in Ukraine,” foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on the sidelines of a European People’s Party (EPP) pre-summit in Brussels.
“Because the EU has imposed sanctions on Russia and, if sanctions are part of the negotiations, they will need to be discussed with those who imposed them,” Tajani said.
Currently, “we are in a pre-negotiation phase, where the US is dialoguing with Russia and Ukraine”, Tajani observed.
And as a document backed by Italy’s ruling coalition in parliament on Wednesday states, “Italy will keep aiding Kiev until there is a truce or a ceasefire,” Tajani said.
“(Russia’s president) Vladimir Putin doesn’t get to dictate terms. We believe in peace, and are absolutely in favour of it, but it must be just peace, agreed at a negotiating table,” Tajani said
