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Czech Republic urges Russia stop calling it unfriendly country - foreign ministry

The ministry pointed out the interests of easing tensions in bilateral relations

PRAGUE, May 31. /TASS/. The Czech Republic calls on Russia to stop using the term "unfriendly state" in respect to it in order to ease tensions in bilateral relations, the Czech foreign ministry said on Monday.

"In the interests of easing tensions in bilateral relations, the Czech Republic urges Russia to stop labeling it and other states as countries making unfriendly steps against Russia, and drop the associated measures," the ministry said.

"We will hardly be able to return to regular diplomatic communication and begin to think about possible complete normalization of bilateral relations without this step," the ministry quoted Minister Jakub Kulhanek as saying. "It should be noted that we think that steps linked with compiling a list of unfriendly countries run counter to the [1961] Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations."

On May 14, Russia released a government-endorsed list of unfriendly countries, featuring only the United States and the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic will be allowed to hire no more than 19 Russian nationals or citizens of third countries to work for its embassy, and the United States, not a single one. On the same day, the Czech foreign ministry said it considered Russia’s move as "a further step towards escalation" in relations with the Czech Republic, the European Union and its partners.

Relations between Russia and the Czech Republic soured after April 17 when the Czech authorities claimed that Russia was allegedly behind the blasts at munitions depots in the village of Vrbetice in the east of the Czech Republic in 2014 and expelled 18 Russian diplomats who, it claimed, were officers of Russian intelligence services. The Russian foreign ministry expressed resolute protests following Prague’s step made "under ungrounded and far-fetched pretexts" and declared 20 employees of the Czech embassy in Moscow personae non gratae.

Later, the sides agreed to align the embassies’ personnel on a parity basis. From June 1, each of them will be allowed to have seven diplomats, 25 technical personnel and 19 locally-hired employees.

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