Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 19
By Jamila Jafarova - Trend:
Latvia will focus its efforts on keeping the Eastern Partnership high on the EU policy agenda, Latvia's Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics told Trend in an interview on Jan. 19.
"The Eastern Partnership (EaP) is a well-developed and comprehensive policy," he said. "Latvia will continue to use the policy for guidance in accordance with its responsibilities during its presidency of the EU Council in 2015."
As the minister said, his country, along with its Eastern partners, is interested in democratic, secure, developed and prosperous neighborhoods.
He added that Latvia, during its EU presidency, will focus on three key EaP objectives.
These objectives include asserting the strategic importance of the EaP policy; confirming that real progress in the EaP has indeed been made since the Vilnius Summit; and strengthening the EaP's attractiveness to partners with enhanced cooperation with the EU in both the medium and longer terms.
Rinkevics said the further political association and advancement of economic integration and trade relations, progress in the field of mobility, people-to-people contacts, stepped up engagement with civil societies, strengthening of the multilateral cooperation framework of the EaP are also important for the EaP's success.
"Latvia is convinced that in taking the EaP forward, it should remain a unified platform with greater opportunities for differentiation," the minister further noted.
He added that one of the future tasks will be to ensure appropriate differentiation to foster an individual partner's interests, as well as to maintain inclusiveness of the EaP up till the Riga Summit and beyond.