Стр. 35 - V

We appreciate San Marino's objective position on the Ukrainian crisis, including its refusal to
support the anti-Russian sanctions despite outside pressure on the republic. We can see attempts
by the Sammarinese leadership to help achieve a peaceful settlement of the situation in Ukraine.
Epifanio Troina, plenipotentiary representative of South
Ossetia in San Marino and honorary consul of Abkhazia in
San Marino (San Marino): I would like to start my
speech by analyzing relations between San Marino
and the Russian Federation in light of the fact that
San Marino plans to sign an association agreement
with the European Union and to integrate more
closely with the North Atlantic alliance while it needs
closer economic relations and more extensive ex-
changes of tourists with the Russian Federation. I don't, of course, deny the ability of the Re-
public of San Marino to pursue its own independent foreign policy, but people with knowledge
of the matter have remarked that there have been differences of opinion on that even at our
conference today.
I have pointed out on more than one occasion that San Marino should have the role of a third
party, a mediatory mission, that it should offer its territory as the venue for negotiations on con-
flicts and organizational problems, and help resolve them.
As plenipotentiary representative of the Republic of South Ossetia in the Republic of San
Marino and honorary consul of the Republic of Abkhazia in the Republic of San Marino, in
other words as a representative of two small Caucasus states in San Marino, let me give you my
best wishes of success and ask you to think about my words.
In international organizations, small states such as San Marino naturally can't rival large states in
terms of influence, but they can contribute to debates and can be instrumental in elections be-
cause their votes have the same weight as the votes of other states.
Michele Chiaruzzi, University of San Marino, director
of the International Relations Center (San Marino): San
Marino is a member of the Council of Europe, some-
thing that probably not everyone is aware of. During
the current friction between the Russian Federation
and some European countries, San Marino has been
doing hard and serious work to prevent the collapse
of a dialogue whose essential nature gets forgotten
by some people in Europe.
The key point that the EU bases all its negotiations on is the following: Democracy is the main
thing, isn't it? From this point of view, there is no imbalance about relations between the small
state of San Marino and the other 28 countries - or the European Union if you like. Our country
is a recognized sovereign state, but it has a special kind of sovereignty because San Marino is
one of the last remaining city states in the world, on the entire planet Earth. We haven't been
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