The ministers agreed that the EU's relations with Russia should pursue according to the policies established in recent years. In this context, the EU continues to advocate the implementation of the Minsk agreements, strengthening the EU’s resilience and the selective cooperation with Russia in the fields that are in the EU’s interest. They also stressed that the EU must promote its collective interests in a more dynamic and determined way and especially speak with one voice.

In the discussion on EU-Turkey relations, they singled out the importance of respecting the commitments from the EU-Turkey joint statement from March 2016, and expressed concern over Turkey’s act of opening borders and encouraging migrations to the EU. The situation requires a unified response from the EU, they also pointed out. Josep Borrell, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, informed the ministers about his talks with Turkish officials in Ankara. Regarding the situation in Syria, the ministers pointed out that the conflict cannot be solved with military interventions, and stressed that the EU should continue to urge all sides involved to achieve a ceasefire and call for cooperation in the UN-led political process.