Borrell says Russia is disconnecting from Europe

The high representative for the Foreign Policy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, affirmed Wednesday in Rome that Russia is taking a worrying authoritarian route disconnecting itself even more from Europe and he trusted that the European Council discuss the situation and the way forward "with Moscow.

he stressed at a joint press conference with Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, one thing is certain: our unity of the EU, fully rooted in the five guiding principles, is key to establishing our future relations.

The head of Italian diplomacy, for his part, recalled that Italy fully supported the European reaction to the case of the Russian opposition leader Alexéi Navalni, also through new sanctions but clarified that now the challenge for the EU is to delineate a strategy towards Russia which, while maintaining a demanding stance on the question of human rights also preserves long-term European interests.

Di Maio said, this also means safeguarding the channels of communication and cooperation with Moscow.

Borrell is in Rome on the occasion of the first anniversary of the European mission EUNavforMed, to whose headquarters he will go today in the Italian capital before traveling to Sicily tomorrow to visit the Sigonella naval and air base.

In the appearance with Di Maio, Borrell also referred to Turkey to say that the EU sees a slight opening after its exploratory talks with Greece and opted to advance relations between the EU and the Turkish country with a constructive attitude, while not ruling out taking action, if necessary.

On Libya, he stressed that the road is still long and requires consolidated efforts for the North African country to achieve peace, but that "there is a window of opportunity.

Di Maio indicated that Europe can and must play an active role in supporting the Libyan transition and that Italy will spare no effort to continue promoting an integrated and coordinated approach by the European Union and its member states.

Finally, the situation due to the pandemic and the need to accelerate vaccination campaigns in Europe was mentioned, and Borrell stated that it is essential to remain united and work together, only then will we win the pandemic.

Di Maio said that at this moment it is necessary to concentrate all European efforts to reinforce the vaccination campaign which, despite the difficulties encountered so far and on which we will have time to reflect, is now our main objective.