RIGA, May 21. /TASS/. The term "annexation of Crimea" will remain in the declaration of the EU Eastern Partnership summit in Riga, but a special position of Armenia and Belarus will be mentioned in it, a source in the Western delegation told TASS on Thusday.
"The situation looks as follows now: the wording will remain, but a reference will be introduced to the position of countries that disagree with it during voting in the UN," the source said.
The wordings are not corrected yet in the draft declaration obtained by TASS. The summit’s participants in clause 4 of the document urge all sides to observe the Minsk agreements, express full support to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and the Contact Group, and pledge to keep backing all diplomatic efforts of the Normandy format (Russia, France, Germany, Ukraine).
Crimea reunified with Russia after a referendum held on March 16, 2014, in which 96.77% of Crimeans and 95.6% of Sevastopol voters chose to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the reunification deals March 18, 2014.
Despite Moscow’s repeated statements that the Crimean referendum on secession from Ukraine was in line with the international law and the UN Charter and in conformity with the precedent set by Kosovo’s secession from Serbia in 2008, the West and Kiev have refused to recognize the legality of Crimea’s reunification with Russia.