MOSCOW, May 31. /TASS/. Moscow is surprised by Brussels' passive reaction to Washington's policy of running the system of arms control, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday while speaking at the opening of a conference on Russia-EU relations.
"The European Union's reaction to the systematic ruining through the US fault of arms control regimes is surprising," he said.
"Russian President Vladimir Putin's detailed and concrete proposal for preventing the emergence of ground-launched intermediate range missiles has been left unnoticed," Lavrov said. "Let me stress it once again that in particular they try to play down the coordination of a verification mechanism envisaging absolutely concrete procedures, such as visits to the Kaliningrad Region in exchange for visits to US missile defense bases in Poland and Romania."
Lavrov stressed that anti-Russian rhetoric in the West was transforming into a military buildup against Russia.
Russian Foreign Minister also noted that it is time to resume political contacts between the EU and Russia, namely with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).
"So far, we have established technical contacts on regulatory and other issues between the commissions. However, we think that the time has come for political contacts as well," he said on Monday during the opening of a conference dedicated to Russian-EU relations.
Lavrov noted that it is necessary to use the comparative advantages to co-existing on the same continent, which is considered "the locomotive of global economic growth," to fix the current state of relations. "We can start small and launch stable cooperation between the Eurasian Economic Union and the European Union. We have been calling on our European partners to do this for a while," he pointed out.