MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. Russia aims to restore full-fledged interaction with the European Union, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini on Monday.
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"The relations between the Russian Federation and the West are living through an uneasy period. We are still aimed at restoring full-fledged cooperation with the European Union, our largest trade and economic partner," Lavrov said.
"We have numerously expressed our principled readiness to normalize the relations at such a pace that will be acceptable for the EU," the Russian foreign minister said. ‘We are open to go as far as you are ready to go," he added.
"Today we will be quite interested in hearing the reaction of the European foreign policy service to our approaches, including the proposals that were submitted to the European Commission about our vision of the state of relations between Moscow and Brussels and about how to better develop these relations," the Russian foreign minister said.
Moscow calls on the EU to focus on actual security threats instead of imaginary ones.
"I thank the EU Foreign Affairs service for conveying condolences over the St. Petersburg terrorist attack," Lavrov said. "This inhuman act of terror ranks equally with the terrorist crimes that other European cities have been facing. This is why we see the need to focus on actual common security threats instead of imaginary ones," the Russian top diplomat added.