Ambassador hails Russia-Kuwait ties
KUWAIT: Russian Ambassador to Kuwait Alexey Solomatin yesterday hailed Russian-Kuwaiti ties, as Kuwait was the first country in the Arabian Gulf to establish diplomatic relations with Russia. “There is respect and a desire to cooperate more with Kuwait and exchange visits. We are expecting a proposal from Russia to set up a joint committee with the government of Kuwait in March. Meetings and talks covering economic, technical, cultural, scientific and education fields will also be held,” he said.
The Embassy of Russia in Kuwait will celebrate Diplomat’s Day on Feb 10, the mission also announced. In 1549 on the same day, the first Russian government was responsible for foreign affairs. But the Russian foreign ministry was only founded in 1802 by a decree from Russian Emperor Alexander the First. Solomatin stated that Russia will celebrate the 70th anniversary of victory in the Second World War on May 9. The Russian embassy will also organize an official reception at the embassy to celebrate Russian National Day on June 12.
On expanded EU sanctions on Russia, imposing asset freezes and visa bans on 15 Russian officials and Ukrainian rebel leaders, Solomatin said such steps do not help in solving problems and there must be direct dialogue between Russia and the European Union. “We are trying to make our relationship with Western countries stronger, but after this decision, Russia decided to freeze contacts with the EU for a year, not forever,” he said.
The EU targeted a number of high-ranking Russian officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak and General Valery Gerasimov and pro-Russian separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine, but steered clear of sanctions on business leaders. “There were economic and social problems and related problems in all fields, so we could not work intensively on international relationships. We are making efforts to develop relations with Western countries first. We need to continue to strengthen US-Russian relations, because there is great responsibility in US to what is happening in Russia and what is happening in the whole world,” he said.
“Russia will participate in solving the problems in the Middle East. We do not interfere directly and we do not impose political or economic pressures on any country, but we want to solve those problems peacefully,” Solomatin said. “The Moscow talks with Syrian opposition figures and the Damascus government ended perfectly and were successful. We will keep holding such meetings and we support meetings in other countries such as Egypt. Russia is interested in making peace in Iraq, Syria and Yemen,” he added.