If Russia continues to put pressure on Ukraine because of the upcoming signing of the Association Agreement, this will affect the dialogue between Moscow and Brussels, said Linas Linkevicius, the foreign minister of Lithuania which is currently holding the EU presidency.

"This will affect the dialogue between the EU and Russia. Our relations are important both in economic and in the political area, but our partnership rests not only on pragmatic interests but on certain values. And one of the most important of them is the freedom of choice. We respect the [European] choice of Ukraine, and hope that no artificial barriers will be set up. Arguments should be used, not force. This is unacceptable and will be judged respectively," he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

Speaking about the reasons that prompted the foreign ministers of the Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) countries to adopt a special statement on the Eastern Partnership at their meeting in Sweden on September 3, Linkevicius explained that the Eastern Partnership "is important not only for the EU and the partner countries, but for the whole of Europe, for the European project."

"Therefore it is not surprising that this matter has been given a lot of attention, especially since we have recently been hearing various statements from other countries that do not like the European aspirations of the Eastern Partnership countries. We view them as economic threats or political pressure. This is unacceptable, so we came up with this statement," he said.

At the same time, the Lithuanian foreign minister expressed confidence that the Association Agreement will be signed.

"We will not turn away from this path, we keep our word, and I think we will come to a successful conclusion - the signing of the Association Agreement. We believe in this, and believe that it is possible," the minister said.

On September 3, the foreign ministers of NB8 (Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia) issued a joint statement in which they expressed their full support to the Association Agreement with Ukraine and called unacceptable any threats and pressure on the countries of the Eastern Partnership in connection with their rapprochement with the European Union.

"Any economic threat or political pressure against the Eastern partners due to their European aspirations and cooperation with the EU, is unacceptable. They have the right to choose for themselves what is best for their future," the statement reads.