Russia is ready to begin the process of improving relations with the European Union if Brussels shows the same intent, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd September, 2018) Russia is ready to begin the process of improving relations with the European Union if Brussels shows the same intent, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.
On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that discussions with Russia were necessary and that he respected Russian President Vladimir Putin, alleging, however, that Putin dreams about "dismantling the European Union."
"Regarding the attitude of President Putin to the European Union, we regretfully state that it is not at the initiative of Russia that these relations are in such a fairly frozen state, that, it seems to us, is absolutely not in the interests of either the EU member states or the Russian Federation. Both the Russian Federation and the president have repeatedly stated that when Brussels would show such readiness, will be ready to enter the path of revitalization and normalization of relations, especially since in some areas these relations continue, like in terms of the energy dialogue and other topics," Peskov told reporters asked to comment on Macron's statement.
The spokesman noted that China was rapidly catching up with the European Union in terms of economic cooperation with Russia.
"Russia continues to develop bilateral relations with the member countries of this organization [EU]. But in general, since the EU is Russia's main trade and economic partner, China is rapidly catching up with it," he said adding that Putin has repeatedly stressed Russia's interest in seeing the European Union "developing, prosperous, predictable and stable."
