There is hope Russia, EU can take relations trajectory consistent with interests of their countries – Peskov

MOSCOW. May 30 (Interfax) – There is hope for an improvement of Russia-EU relations, and the participation of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum can help that, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.

“On the whole, the subject of Russia-EU relations has paramount importance, relations with the European Union are still crucial for the Russian Federation,” Peskov told the press on Monday.

Russia-EU relations are not at their best now, he said.

“We have been living for years in the absence of a fundamental document – a conceptual framework document. As you know, the attempts to coordinate it failed long ago, and after that cooperation and dialogue were curtailed by many parameters due to the course taken by our European partners,” Peskov said.

“Hopefully, this trend will eventually be overcome and, most importantly, we will finally manage to take a trajectory of bilateral relations, which will better correspond to the interests of our countries,” Peskov said.

“We can see that, irrespective of the joint decisions made in Brussels, many countries are still exhibiting their interest in the improvement of relations, and the expansion of cooperation with Russia at the bilateral level, in order to compensate for what has been missed in the past two years,” the Kremlin press secretary said.