All news

EU’s chief diplomat points to growing mistrust between Russia and the European Union

Borrell was on a visit to Russia between February 4 and 6

BRUSSELS, February 9./TASS/. Relations between Russia and the European Union have come full circle over the past 30 years, practically getting back to those of the Cold War times, European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said in a speech at the European Parliament debate on his visit to Moscow on February 4-6.

"Russia-EU relations have come full circle since the 1990 Paris Charter. This Charter represented the equivalent of what we called the "End of History", after the fall of the Berlin Wall [in 1989]," the European diplomat said.

"Instead, there is a deep disappointment, and growing mistrust between the European Union and Russia," Josep Borrell said. "Many of the traditional pillars of Russia-European relations are giving way," he stressed.

"The Russian economic ties with Europe have been severely hit by sanctions. Energy shipments, that have been for decades the backbone of the strategic relationship between Moscow and Europe, will be deeply affected by the ‘greening’ of the world economy," Josep Borrell pointed out.

Borrell was on a visit to Russia between February 4 and 6. On February 5, he met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The EU foreign policy chief said that he had had "open and frank debates" on all aspects of Russia-EU relations, from the anti-coronavirus efforts, global climate change, and the situation around the Iran nuclear deal to the gaps in the positions on Ukraine, Brussel’s support of Navalny, and its opinion about Russia’s expulsion of European diplomats, who had attended unauthorized protests in Russia.

However, on the following day he issued a separate statement, saying the press conference in Moscow had been "aggressively-staged".