/ world today news/ Parliament did not issue a general statement on the Skripal case
We have summoned our ambassador to Moscow for consultations for a month or four weeks, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said after the security council. The diplomat was summoned to consultations in Sofia after a number of countries expelled Russian diplomats as a sign of solidarity with Great Britain, BNR reported.
“In NATO, we have also given our voice. In practice, we have shown, as yesterday the British ambassador said in the media, our full solidarity with Great Britain ..As the chairman of the European Council, we must maintain a channel of communication, as we did in an extremely tense situation in our region at the moment, let’s do the same with Russia. This is included in our duties. Calling for consultations in diplomacy is a practice that shows that we pay serious attention,” said the prime minister.
According to Borissov, we are witnessing “extreme tensions”, unseen “since the real war so far” and higher than during the Cold War.
“Today, our colleagues, including from the Presidency, supported the Council’s decision to limit ourselves to full support for Great Britain – what we did at the European Council. At the same time, Ambassador Kotsev informed us of what was being said in Moscow, what he had read, which in the relevant consultations there with the local factors he communicated with. We are waiting for more evidence, if any, and, at this time, we do not consider that we should expel any diplomat or technical persons from the Russian Federation. We have full support for Britain, declared in our votes and, at the same time, a clear decision that Mr. Kotsev will be here for a week, because on the 8th there is a big exhibition we are doing, of Svetlin Rusev, in Moscow.
Last Friday, Borisov commented from Brussels that there was only a “high probability”, but not full evidence, that Skripal was poisoned on the orders of the Russian authorities. “However, I asked them for more evidence than a high degree of probability, not a ‘full degree’. As long as the high degree exists and we have no evidence, we cannot move on this issue. I said we are a coalition and we are unlikely to reach an agreement with the coalition partners , and you also know that after the visit of the Russian patriarch to Bulgaria, the mood in Bulgaria is not in this direction,” said Borisov. After this speech from a week ago, Borisov has not publicly commented on the development of events. Of the EU member states, only Austria, Greece, Cyprus and Slovenia do not plan to expel Russian diplomats and have not called their ambassadors from Moscow for consultations.
In response, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that Russia would expel 60 American diplomats and close the US consulate in St. Petersburg. Lavrov said, quoted by BGNES, that the American ambassador was informed of the “retaliatory measures”, which included “the expulsion of an equal number of diplomats and our decision was to terminate the permission for the operation of the consulate in St. Petersburg”. Washington earlier said it would expel 60 Russian diplomats and close the consulate in Seattle. Lavrov added that Russia will act in this way for other countries that have expelled its ambassadors.
Later today, Russia announced that it would expel diplomats from a number of European countries as a mirror response to the measures taken over the poisoning of former Russian agent Sergei Skripal in the British city of Salisbury. These are Finland (one), Italy (two), Poland (four), Lithuania (three), Latvia (one), the Netherlands (two), Sweden (one) and Estonia (one). Their representatives must leave the country within the week.
Russia’s foreign ministry also announced it had given Britain a month to reduce the maximum size of its mission in Moscow to the same size as Russia’s in the UK. According to the statement of the Russian institution, it was the “provocative actions” of Great Britain that prompted many European countries to expel Russian diplomats. In response, the British Foreign Office accused Russia of violating international law. Back in mid-March, London decided to expel 23 Russian diplomats and take several other measures in the Skripal case, and Moscow responded reciprocally.
This morning, the ambassadors of a number of Western countries, members of the European Union and Ukraine arrived at the Foreign Ministry. The ambassadors in Moscow of Germany and France also arrived at the institution, but it is not known that members of their missions were expelled.
This happened after Britain accused the country of involvement in the poisoning of the former spy Skripal. Lavrov said that London “forced everyone to follow an anti-Russian course of action”. He said Britain had informed Moscow of Yulia Skripal’s condition and that Russia wanted access to her as a citizen of the country. During the briefing in Moscow, Sergey Lavrov promised that “the truth will prevail” despite Britain’s attempts to “mock international laws”. He added that Russia had asked to meet with the executive board of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to raise the issue of “truth-finding” in the case. “We will count on our partners from the West not to avoid honest talks,” Lavrov said.
Vice President Iliyana Yotova told BNT that “Bulgaria has a unique chance to preserve the possibility of mediation. We will see what information will be brought out. It is not a precedent. Perhaps for the first time the world is divided. Perhaps that is why Bulgaria’s role becomes even more valuable. At the moment, the policy of small steps is the right policy”.
The National Assembly will not issue a general statement on the Skripal case. This was decided by the group leaders after a short meeting of the presidential council, BGNES reported. We did not reach an agreement on a general declaration of the presidential council, it was in the national interest to have one, said BSP leader Kornelia Ninova. “We did not agree on a joint statement, which I regret. Both the national interest and the interest of Europe required the Bulgarian parliament to have one,” emphasized Ninova. She specified that the GERB council represented by Tsvetan Tsvetanov objected to the declaration. Ninova congratulated Borissov for the decision to wait for the evidence, the facts and not to expel Russian diplomats, as well as not to respond to ours. Kornelia Ninova also commented that our country needs the truth and evidence in the Skripal case. We hope that as the chairman of the Council of the EU, Bulgaria will undertake this mediation and be a bridge between Europe and Russia in the name of peace and tranquility of all peoples in Europe, added the BSP leader. For his part, the chairman of the PG of GERB, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, was categorical that there are absolutely no doubts about the facts that Great Britain has and what they say and stand for. He commented that at the moment, with the stated position of the Prime Minister, it is not necessary to issue a declaration from the Parliament. “Today’s decision of the Prime Minister is based on the held Security Council. The information they discussed is not available to the people’s representatives. The BSP only liked the position of the prime minister that at the moment they will not chase diplomats from Bulgaria,” said Tsvetanov. At the presidential council, he read the main highlights of the Council’s decision, and the BSP were not very friendly that it found a place in the declaration. The only thing for which they expressed their complete satisfaction and supported the prime minister is that we will not chase Russian diplomats, Tsvetanov also said.
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