Armenia and Belarus refused to sign up to any statement that called "Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula illegal" and EU diplomats said a compromise text would be put to them, reports Reuters, citing its diplomatic sources.
This text, according to Reuters, would note the EU's condemnation of the Crimean situation but also refer to partner governments' positions in a U.N. vote in March 2014 in which Armenia and Belarus took Moscow's line.
"These are not easy negotiations," a EU diplomat said after talks in Brussels on a draft text that will be reviewed in Latvia by foreign ministers from the EU, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus on Thursday evening. President Serzh Sargsyan will represent Armenia at the EaP Summit Riga on May 21-22.