Kiev's Pullout From Russia-Ukraine Friendship Treaty To Hinder Talks On Azov Sea - Expert

The decision of the Ukrainian authorities to withdraw from the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership between Ukraine and Russia will significantly obstruct negotiations on the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, including in the Normandy Four format, Alexey Chesnakov, a political expert and director of the Center for Current Politics, said Tuesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th December, 2018) The decision of the Ukrainian authorities to withdraw from the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership between Ukraine and Russia will significantly obstruct negotiations on the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, including in the Normandy Four format, Alexey Chesnakov, a political expert and director of the Center for Current politics, said Tuesday.

On Monday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed the law stating that Ukraine would not renew the treaty which expires on April 1, 2019.

"Poroshenko's signing the law on terminating the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership between Ukraine and Russia will impede the already difficult negotiations on preventing provocations and normalizing situation in the Azov-Kerch region," the expert told reporters, adding that this included the Normandy Four group negotiations by representatives of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine that were to start later in the day in Berlin.

The expert added that Kiev's decision would also erase the legal basis for the existing bilateral agreement on free navigation in the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, which was largely relying on the friendship treaty.

"This way, Ukraine deprives itself of the right to free navigation in this region by its own will," the expert added.