Weimar Triangle warns Russia against further 'aggression'

Foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland warn Russia against further aggression: photo: PAP / EPA / MARTIN SCHUTT

"We will not accept a policy that divides and splits Ukraine, or that seeks to transpose the action taken in Crimea to other parts of Ukraine or other Eastern European partner countries," says a statement by foreign ministers of the Weimar Triangle, an informal alliance dating back to 1991.

Condemning Russia's "aggression" against Ukraine, the statement adds that "if Russia were to pursue this course, we would support taking new strong action, including in the economic field," Germany's Frank-Walter Steinmeier, France's Laurent Fabius and Poland's Radosław Sikorski add.

As all three politicians are at the NATO meeting in Brussels, Tuesday, to discuss the alliance's response to Russia's annexation of Crimea.

Before the meeting, a NATO committee drafted plans to increase military co-operation with ex-Soviet states Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Moldova - a move that will anger the Kremlin.

A Russian Navy Tarantul-III class Missile Boat of the Black Sea Fleet prepares for a voyage at the Crimean city of Sevastopol, 01 April: photo - EPA/SERGEI ILNITSKY

Russia's foreign ministry warned Ukraine against closer ties with NATO on Tuesday.

Past attempts to strenthen ties "led to a freezing of Russian-Ukrainian political contacts, a headache between NATO and Russia and [...] to a division in Ukrainian society," the Russian Foreign
Ministry said.

Russia warned that future economic ties between Moscow and Kiev "will largely depend on the actions Ukraine takes in its foreign policy," Reuters reports. (pg)