MOSCOW, July 25 (RIA Novosti) - European Ambassador to Russia Vygaudas Ušackas told RIA Novosti in an interview Friday that he hoped for the renewal of high level summits between Russia and the European Union.
“Of course I hope that we’ll return to high level meetings and summits. In order to do that, it’s necessary to create a positive atmosphere to hold a full-fledged summit between the EU and Russia in the future,” Ušackas said in the interview.
Ušackas said that he was “disappointed in how our relations have unfolded over the last 4-5 months.”
“At the same time, I hope that we will return from this crisis stage through the process of renewing trust between us and understanding in solving the issues around Ukraine and around our bilateral relations, which would return us to the normalization of our relations and work on a future summit between the EU and Russia,” he added.
According to Eurostat data, Russia was EU’s largest provider of natural gas and petroleum oil in 2013. Many European countries have strategic partnerships with Russian companies and are heavily investing in joint projects.
The diplomat added that the sanctions, imposed by the European Union, are not in place forever, and can be either extended or lifted.
Russia-EU relations have been tense over the crisis in Ukraine, where currently the Kiev troops are fighting against the supporters of independence of southwestern regions, who refused to acknowledge the newly instated government of Ukraine that came to power after the February 22 coup.
