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St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2016

Inventory of Russia-EU ties next step to their improvement — diplomat

The arrival of the European Commission President J Juncker to the SPIEF was the first step towards improving the Russia-EU relations

© EPA/SERGEI CHIRIKOV

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ST.PETERSBURG, June 16 /TASS/. The inventory of the Russia-EU relations is the next step to their improvement. Russia has already done its part of the job, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Thursday.

The diplomat said that the arrival of the European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker to the SPIEF was the first step towards improving the Russia-EU relations. "The inventory of our relations, on which we agreed some time ago, is going to be the second step. We have done our part of the job. Our EU colleagues have been a bit slower than we are but today they may get an additional impetus to step up their activities," Chizhov said.

According to him, there will always be people - both inside and outside the European Union who would like to put spokes in the wheel of the Russia-EU relations.

"Perhaps, you saw a statement by the US Secretary of State who openly said that the United States would not participate in the SPIEF at any level and was advising others not to do that either," the Russian diplomat stressed.

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Foreign policy SPIEF 2016

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