Foreign Affairs Committee

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 2:21 pm on 12 July 2018.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mike Gapes Mike Gapes Labour/Co-operative, Ilford South 2:21, 12 July 2018

Russia does have historical connections with this part of the world, but it is also important to recognise that we are talking about independent states that have the right to determine their own direction of travel. Russia wants to weaken the European Union and stop its enlargement. What Russia is trying to do—it tried to do this explicitly in Montenegro—is change the internal politics of some countries in order to stop their association with NATO and the EU, which is clearly not in our interests or in the interests of the region’s peoples or Governments, who have the right to make their own political choices.