Merkel says door still open to Ukraine on trade pact
VILNIUS (Reuters) – Ukraine is still welcome to seek a trade pact with the European Union, despite Kyiv’s announcement last week that it was shelving such efforts, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday.
“I don’t have any hope that it will happen this time but the door is open,” Merkel said on arrival in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, where EU leaders were due to hold a summit with countries in eastern Europe and southern Caucasus.
Before Ukraine’s surprise change of heart, the EU had said it could sign a trade deal with Kyiv at the summit, which starts later on Thursday.
(Reporting by Adrian Croft and Justyna Pawlak in Vilnius and John O’Donnell in Brussels)
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