Romanian Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean said on Friday that Romania supports Ukraine for its political association and economic integration with the European Union, according to Xinhua.
"We hope that Ukraine's agenda of association with the EU will be fulfilled and in this context we hope that they will meet the conditions for signing the association agreement between Ukraine and the EU at the Eastern Partnership Summit due in Vilnius, this November," Corlatean told a joint press conference with his visiting Ukrainian counterpart Leonid Kozhara.
Corlatean also stressed that the European route of Ukraine was a "sovereign decision" and must be respected by all international players.
"Any form of pressure that might be politically motivated in order to change the sovereign, legitimate will of the EU partner states in the Eastern Partnership is an unacceptable form," Corlatean reaffirmed EU's common position.
Corlatean was referring to the embargo imposed by Russia on some products of Moldova and Ukraine, a measure that is regarded as a form of economic pressure on these ex-Soviet states, which make efforts to come closer to the EU.
Corlatean said that last week he requested the EU to find "very rapidly" a formula of support, of assistance and financial compensations for the states affected by the recent restrictive measures imposed by Russia.
The EU, through its "Eastern Partnership" programme, is offering political and trade deals to six ex-Soviet states. The agreement are similar to those the EU offered to countries such as Poland in the 1990s, though without any promise of membership.
Russia, meanwhile, is trying to pull ex-Soviet states into a customs union it has created with former Soviets Soviets Belarus and Kazakhstan which is due to deepen into a single economic space and ultimately an EU-style "Euroasia Union".
