PARIS, June 4. /TASS/. Trade and economic cooperation between European countries and Russia needs to be restored to the levels seen in the early 2000s, Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde.

"In the long term, it is crucial to try to go back to the situation that existed 20 years ago, when economic cooperation with Russia was still feasible," the Hungarian premier noted.

Earlier, Magyar told the German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that Europe should build pragmatic ties with Russia after the conflict in Ukraine was over.