MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia and the European Union will eventually restore their strategic cooperation – but in a new quality, the country's EU ambassador Vladimir Chizhov said in a video link-up with the Rossiya Segodnya press center in Moscow.
"I think – and that is my personal opinion – that strategic partnership between Russia and the European Union is unavoidable, they cannot avoid restoring it – but in a new quality," the envoy said.
In September 2014, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Russia was no longer a EU strategic partner. In his turn, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said that EU-Russia strategic partnership had failed a stress test.
"We will need to focus on exploring the essence of our partnership," the diplomat stressed.
Relations between the European Union and Russia, its largest neighbor and third largest trading partner, deteriorated last year amid the Ukraine crisis, in which Brussels sided with Washington to slap Moscow with rounds of sanctions.
