At the European Union (EU) Eastern Partnership Summit, which will kick off Thursday in the Latvian capital city of Riga, Armenia and Belarus refused to sign up to any statement that called Russia’s annexation of Crimea illegal, and the EU diplomats said a compromise text would be put to them, reported Reuters.

“These are not easy negotiations,” one EU diplomat said after talks in Brussels on a draft text of the summit’s joint communiqué, reported Gazeta.

The diplomat added that any success for the summit would depend on “how it will be read in Moscow.” 

The Riga summit has brought together foreign ministers from the EU, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Belarus

The aforesaid joint communiqué will be issued on Friday.