Eurasia Press & News
The European Union (EU) on Friday signed association agreements with Georgia and Moldova, but failed to ink a landmark deal with Ukraine in its drive to boost ties with six ex-Soviet states, according to news reports reaching here.
Ukraine, the largest of the six, was due to sign a partnership agreement with the EU at the two-day EU Eastern Partnership Summit, which kicked off Thursday in Lithuanian capital Vilnius. But it suddenly suspended the deal last Thursday, opting for closer trade ties with Russia.
The political and trade agreements with the EU initialled by Georgia and Moldova mark the end of negotiations to strengthen mutual ties, but will still need to be officially signed to come into effect, hopefully within the next year.
“The Ukrainian president is not ready to go further into integration with the European Union,” Dalia Grybauskaite, president of Lithuania — which currently holds the rotating EU presidency — said earlier.
