Moscow expects the new EU leadership to realize that it is impossible to become a key geostrategic player while maintaining the status quo in relations with Russia, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“The feeling that the time has come to return our relations to the trajectory of progressive development is gradually gaining strength in the EU member states. We believe that the new leadership of the European Council and the European Commission are also aware of the incompatibility of preserving the vicious status quo with the ambitious goals of transforming the EU into a “geostrategic player of the highest rank” , – he said in an interview with La Stampa.
“For our part, we are ready for joint work to promote Russian-Soviet cooperation on an equal, mutually beneficial basis”, – the Minister added, noting that Russia has never abandoned the idea of building a truly unified “Greater Europe” without dividing lines with the participation of Russia, the European Union and common neighbors.
In particular, an important step for this could be the convergence of the potential of the EAEC and the EU, which would also contribute to the formation of a space of peace, equal and indivisible security and broad economic interaction from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, said Lavrov.
According to the Minister, the last few years have become a “period of missed opportunities” for relations between Russia and the European Union. Linking the prospects of cooperation between Moscow and Brussels with the domestic Ukrainian settlement is absurd, and the freezing of joint work and preservation of sanctions “objectively contradicts the fundamental interests” of citizens, he added.