Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s article Neighbours in Europe. Russia-EU: Thirty Years of Relations for Rossiyskaya Gazeta has been published by the website of the Foreign Ministry.
As Lavrov pointed out, “Russia and the EU are important trade and economic partners, as well as neighbors who can share their common responsibility for peace, prosperity and security in this part of Eurasia. Russia-EU trade could have reached $500 bln, becoming a global factor comparable to the EU’s trade with the United States or China.”
In his view, “Russia’s relations with the majority of EU states are being revitalized. The restrictions on trade will not settle the existing problems but will only create more obstacles and will weaken Europe’s economic positions. There is no doubt that European cultures and economies can only protect their identities and competitive ability from the onslaught of globalization by combining the relative competitive advantages of all countries and integration associations in the common Eurasian space.”
The Minister noted “the concept of Greater Eurasian Partnership from the Atlantic to the Pacific involving the states of the Eurasian Economic Union, the SCO, ASEAN, and all other countries on the continent. EU-EAEU cooperation can become the economic basis for EU members joining this Partnership. Aligning the potentials of the two major regional markets and harmonizing their trade and investment regimes will strengthen the positions of all those involved in global trade.”