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Russia's EU envoy: Russia and EU rethinking bilateral cooperation

"I see our future relations as relations between real strategic partners," Russia’s Permanent Representative to the EU says

© AP Photo/Yves Logghe

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Moscow says by downplaying cooperation with Russia, EU ‘bites the hand that feeds it’

MOSCOW, Moscow 16 /TASS/. Russia is "carrying out an inventory" of its cooperation with the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the European Union, told a Moscow-Brussels video conference on Wednesday.

"It is not a reaction to the Monday decisions [of EU foreign ministers -TASS] because this work have been under way quite long. Moreover, we have never made a secret of it to our partners. We have agreed that each of the sides will do the [reconsideration] work at home. We will compare the conclusions drawn afterwards," the Russian diplomat said.

He added that no one was re-evaluating the principles of [cooperation]. "We are just trying to conceive what has been useful and what has just created a semblance of strategic partnership," Chizhov went on to say.

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"I think we are going to benefit from this pragmatic approach," Russia’s permanent representative added.

Chizhov said that Moscow was carefully analyzing what was useful and what was just extremely pleasant but not at all beneficial or even redundant in Russia’s relations with the European Union.

"This is how we are going to formulate our approach - proceeding from the maximum usefulness of certain areas of interaction with the EU [for Russia]," Chizhov said noting the same kind of work was under way in the European Union.

"I see our future relations as relations between real strategic partners," Chizhov stressed.

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Foreign policy EU Vladimir Chizhov

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