New Delhi: The first meeting of the US-EU High-Level Dialogue on Russia was held in Washington on Wednesday to consider further steps to “isolate Russia further from the US and EU economies and the international financial system,” according to a joint statement of the US Department of State and the European External Action Service.
The US side was represented by Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland and the European Union was represented by European External Action Service Deputy Secretary-General for Political Affairs Enrique Mora.
Nuland and Mora “welcomed the coordination between the United States and the European Union in implementing unprecedented sanctions and export control measures in response to Russia’s aggression and discussed continued close cooperation in coordination with the G7 to ensure stringent implementation of these measures,” the statement reads. “They also discussed additional steps to isolate Russia further from the U.S. and EU economies and the international financial system to impose severe costs on Russia for its actions” in Ukraine.
Apart from that, they “welcomed the growing number of countries applying sanctions and export control measures against Russia, reiterated their commitment to further expanding the coalition and strengthening enforcement of these measures.”
According to the statement, they “will continue to urge China not to circumvent nor undermine sanctions against Russia, and not to provide any form of support” to Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.
Apart from that, they touched upon issues of reducing the European Union’s dependence on Russian energy sources.
The sides agreed to hold another meeting of the High-Level Dialogue on Russia in late 2022.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aimed to demilitarize and denazify the country.
Following this step, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and several other countries announced sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities.
(Vinayak)