France: Cancel Sochi G8 summit over Ukraine crisis

Spanish foreign minister cuts Tehran trip short to attend emergency EU talks after Putin sends troops into Crimea

By AFP and ToI Staff 2 March 2014, 4:27 pm

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French foreign minister Laurent Fabius on his way to a meeting, during the third day of closed-door nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva, Switzerland, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013. (photo credit: AP/Jean-Christophe Bott,Pool)

France’s foreign minister called Sunday for preparations to be suspended for the upcoming G8 summit in Sochi over Russia’s “military escalation” in Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.

“France wants preparations for the Sochi G8 summit to be suspended,” Laurent Fabius told French radio, “until our Russian partners have returned to principles compatible with those of the G7 and G8.

“We condemn the Russian military escalation and call for negotiations to be organized with the least possible delay, either directly between Russians and Ukrainians or through a UN or OSCE intermediary,” he said.

“Russia is traditionally our friend. We want a traditional friend far more than saber-rattling.”

Canada already pulled out of the upcoming G8 summit over the Russian invasion of the Crimea Peninsula.

Fabius’s comments came after President Vladimir Putin obtained the green light from parliament on Saturday to use military force in its neighbor Ukraine.

A G8 summit is currently due to be held in Sochi in June.

Meanwhile, Spain’s foreign minister will cut short his visit to Iran Sunday in order to attend EU talks on the crisis in Ukraine, the Spanish embassy in Tehran confirmed to AFP.

“He will leave this afternoon for Brussels,” a diplomatic source said.

Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, who arrived in Tehran on Saturday for a planned four-day visit, is to attend an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday.

“We are concerned about the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Garcia-Margallo said in a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Zarif said Iran too was “concerned about the developments in Ukraine.”

“We hope there will be a peaceful settlement to the crisis,” he added.

The EU session was called after the Russian parliament approved Putin’s request for sending troops into neighboring Ukraine’s Crimea region, triggering an international outcry.

US President Barack Obama warned Moscow on Friday that there would be “costs” if Russia intervenes militarily.