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MOSCOW (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Wednesday that EU sanctions against Russia should stop, but declined to say whether his government was ready to veto any further reversals. economic.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on October 24, 2018. Sergei Chirikov / Pool via REUTERS
Russia has been under sanctions from the European Union since the 2014 Ukrainian crisis and Rome has long called for a relaxation of sentences on the grounds that they have hit Italian companies trading with Moscow.
The latest trade restrictions with the Russian banking, financial and energy sectors were renewed in June but expire at the end of January and are currently under discussion in Brussels.
"For Italy, sanctions are never an end in themselves, they are an instrument that must be overcome as quickly as possible," Conté said at a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
However, he refused to say whether Rome was ready to veto a renewal of the sanction. "Italy would like to persuade other European countries that dialogue is the only way forward."
Italy is already grappling with EU allies over the government's disputed budget for 2019, which the European Commission rejected, saying it was breaking the deficit rules.
Financial markets also reacted negatively to the budget, with bond yields reaching multi-year highs as investors feared for the sustainability of Italy's mountain of debt.
Conté denied the idea that he would have asked Russia to buy Italian bonds in order to calm the markets.
"I did not come here to ask Putin to buy Italian securities through the sovereign fund. If a sovereign wealth fund or the central bank had to make such a decision, it would do it because it is convenient and cheap, "said Conté.
Report by Giulia Secreti; Edited by Crispian Balmer and Alison Williams
