Kerry To Travel To Tbilisi, Kyiv Next Week
By RFE/RL
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. State Department says Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Georgia next week for talks on Tbilisi's push for closer ties with NATO and the European Union.
Department spokesman John Kirby said on June 30 that Kerry will meet with Georgia's president, prime minister, and opposition leaders and raise the issue of upcoming elections in October.
Kirby also said Kerry will travel to Kyiv on the following day, July 7, to meet with Ukraine's president and prime minister, emphasizing the need for ongoing reforms and the implementation of the Minsk cease-fire agreement for eastern Ukraine.
Kerry will also join U.S. President Barack Obama in Warsaw later in the week for a NATO summit, where leaders are expected to endorse a larger deployment of alliance military forces to Eastern Europe.
EU Extends Sanctions Against Russia
By RFE/RL
BRUSSELS -- The European Union has officially decided to extend its economic sanctions against Russia to January 31, 2017.
The decision to roll over the measures was made by EU ambassadors already last week, but Italy slowed down the confirmation process and insisted that the final decision be taken after the EU summit in Brussels on June 28-29.
The decision was finally taken by a so-called written procedure in which all the EU member states capitals had to approve the prolongation within a specific time frame that ended on July 1.
The decision will now be published in the EU official journal on July 2.
The sanctions, which hits Russia's energy and banking sector and also target specific Russian politicians, were first adopted by Brussels in June and July 2014 after Russia's forcible annexation of Crimea and its intervention in eastern Ukraine.