Moscow has no relations with the EU as an organization but only with individual European countries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a joint press conference with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.
“There are no relations with the EU as an organization. The structure of these relations was destroyed by the unilateral decisions of Brussels,” Lavrov explained.
He added, however, that Russia was open to dialogue with the EU if Brussels decided to mend bilateral relations.
“If the Europeans deem it right to eliminate these anomalies in relations with their biggest neighbor, then, we will be ready to rebuild these relations on the basis of equality, the pursuit of balancing interests,” he said.
At the same time, Lavrov said that Russia and China would do everything possible to protect their economic and trade relations from the threats of unfriendly countries. “One cannot trade by using ultimatums, sanctions, forcing other countries to adopt a certain kind of behavior,” he commented.
The Russian minister also said that Moscow rejected the West’s efforts to present Russia and China as rebels of “COVID-19 vaccination diplomacy,” as this had nothing to do with reality.
“Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, both countries have shown exemplary sincerity and mutual assistance in the fight against COVID-19,” Lavrov said.
“I would like to emphasize what (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin said yesterday during a meeting on the production and distribution of vaccines, that he made it clear that we should be driven by humanitarianism on these issues, always interested in saving lives, not thinking on the geopolitical basis and adopting a commercial approach to surpass the competitor,” said the Russian minister.
“It is imperative that everyone, including our Western partners, try to present Russia and China as rebels in the so-called ‘vaccination diplomacy’ sector. This is completely untrue,” Lavrov said.
Source: ANA-MPA