UN Confirms Ban Will Visit Moscow For Victory Day
The United Nations has confirmed that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will go to Moscow to attend Victory Day events later this week.
Spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on May 4 that Ban's meetings in Moscow are not yet finalized. He's attending events marking the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
North Korea has said it is sending Kim Yong Nam, the head of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, to the Moscow event.
That ended speculation that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would make his international debut there.
Ban, who is South Korean, will also visit Ukraine during this trip to meet with President Petro Poroshenko.
Ukraine's foreign minister last week criticized the idea of Ban visiting Russia amid a pro-Moscow separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine.
Based on reporting by Reuters and TASS
EU to stand by Ukraine trade deal at summit despite Russia-draft
By Robin Emmott
BRUSSELS, May 5 (Reuters) - The European Union will implement a free-trade pact with Ukraine from next year despite Russian pressure for another delay, according to a draft statement prepared for a summit with six of the bloc's eastern neighbours this month in Riga.
The joint declaration, which is likely to antagonise Moscow, commits to the deal from Jan. 1, 2016, a date already a year later than planned as Russia seeks to oppose European efforts to integrate Ukraine and move it out of Moscow's sphere of orbit.
Russia is pushing for the deal to be postponed by at least another year, according to a Ukrainian official, but the EU is insisting there can be no further delay.
Although the EU is willing to discuss Russian concerns, implementation "will be a top priority of the EU and the partners concerned for the coming years," the draft said.
The deal is at the heart of tensions that have grown from a tug-of-war over influence in Kiev to sanctions, the annexation of Crimea by Russia, armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, and concern among some in the West about a new Cold War.
But aside from the EU's show of support for Ukraine, the May 21-22 Eastern Partnership summit will offer little for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia and Moldova, according to the draft, as EU governments lower their ambitions for fear of further provoking the Kremlin.
Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine signed association agreements with the European Union last year and want to join the European Union. But the draft made no mention of their aspirations.
Instead, it said that neither Georgia nor Ukraine will immediately be granted visa-free travel to the European Union, as Tbilisi and Kiev had hoped, and that they need reforms to be able to enjoy the kind of treatment Moldova has obtained.
The tepid tone was far from the ambitions of the last Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius in 2013, where the European Union sought to encourage a historic shift away from Russia by the six former Soviet republics.
Brussels now appears to accept that Armenia has chosen to side with Moscow after the country decided in 2013 to join a customs union led by Russia, its former Soviet master and its biggest foreign investor. "It is for the EU and its sovereign partners to decide on how they want to proceed with their bilateral relations," the draft said.