BRUSSELS, July 11. /TASS/. Moscow hopes the situation in bilateral relations between Russia and the EU will return to normalcy gradually, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday after talks with the EU's High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini.

In spite of all the complications, Russia and the EU keep up ties.

"There is the mutual understanding that, in any case, we are neighbors and we need mutual consent for the solution of problems that crop up," he said.

"I think the situation will switch back to the track of normalcy," Lavrov said. "This meets both Russia and the EU's fundamental interests cleared of accretions."

Russia-EU ties 

Moscow and Brussels agree that regular bilateral contacts are needed:

"I would like to thank Federica Mogherini for this meeting," Lavrov said. "As soon as Federica learnt that I had been invited to pay a visit to Belgium, she immediately asked me to meet with her and I gladly agreed."

"I completely share what has just been said about the necessity of regular contacts," Lavrov stressed.

"Especially in a situation when our colleagues from the European Union, due to obvious but absolutely short-sighted, to my mind, reasons, have frozen most of dialogue mechanisms Russia and Brussels used to have," the Russian foreign minister has emphasized.