UNITED NATIONS, September 25. /ITAR-TASS/. The European Union is ready to restore trust with Russia and revise its sanctions if there is tangible progress in the resolution of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, said on Thursday.
“With Russia, our biggest neighbour, we are ready to engage and re-establish a basis of trust, of promises kept,” he said at the U.N. General Assembly currently underway in New York.
He stressed the need “to ensure the peace process launched in Minsk advances, and that all parties respect the ceasefire and abide by the Peace Plan”.
Van Rompuy said the Western sanctions on Russia were “not a goal in themselves” and “they can be revised, provided there is tangible progress”.
“We can rebuild trust if commitments are met,” he said.
He urged Kiev “to move firmly forward on the path of reforms. Those reforms - economic, political, constitutional - will determine the success of a lasting political solution”.
Van Rompuy said the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, ratified last week by the Ukrainian Rada and the European Parliament, was “a compass, an opportunity to help Ukraine transform into the dynamic, modern and open democracy its people deserve”.