Hague 'not optimistic' before talks
William Hague has warned he is 'not optimistic' of making progress on the Ukraine crisis when he meets his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov later.
The Foreign Secretary said the discussions with Mr Lavrov and US secretary of state John Kerry in Paris would be a 'test' of whether Moscow was ready to make concessions to defuse the situation.
But he said there was little sign that Russia would agree to set up a 'contact group' for direct talks with the government in Kiev.
'I am not optimistic about the outcome of that but of course it is right to try every diplomatic opportunity to de-escalate the crisis,' he told reporters in the French capital.
'If we cannot make progress on that of course there will be costs and consequences... there has to be for such a violation of the independence and sovereignty of another nation.
'It will be a test this afternoon of whether Russia is prepared to sit down with Ukraine.'
Mr Hague appeared to play down the prospects of significant action being agreed at a hastily assembled European Council meeting tomorrow, saying reaching a unified position required 'a lot of hard work'.
While insisting Britain was 'closely aligned' with France, he did not make the same claim about Germany, which has the strongest trading links with Russia.
'It is true that bringing together 28 nations in agreement on foreign policy-specific decisions always requires a lot of hard work,' Mr Hague said.
'I think the UK and France are very closely aligned. The Prime Minister has held discussions with president (Francois) Hollande and chancellor (Angela) Merkel over the last couple of days by telephone.
'It would be wrong for me to speculate about what will come out of the European Council and it will, in any case, depend partly on events today.
'But I have no doubt the European Union can come together on important measures if the need is there. And it may well be there.
'Some of the most important consequences could very well be in the long term.
'Here we have seen Russia do in the Crimea what has happened in Georgia some years ago, what has happened in Moldova, and it becomes a long-term pattern of behaviour that I think will change the relationship between European nations and Russia.'
Meanwhile, Downing Street said the Department for Business was reviewing licences for exports to Russia issued under arms control legislation.
The Prime Minister's spokesman said: 'We have said we will look at a range of diplomatic and economic and political measures in response to the violation of Ukraine's sovereignty.
'In that context, we are reviewing all existing export licences. My understanding is that there are no weapons in this. It is to do with components for vehicles and vessels.'
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