The presidents of the European Council, Charles Michel, and of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, acknowledged in a telephone conversation on Monday 7 June that the poor state of relations between the EU and Moscow was in the interest of neither the Union nor Russia.
“EU-Russia relations are at an all-time low. This situation or its further deterioration is not in the interest of either side”, stressed the European Council in a statement, adding that the EU would stand united and in solidarity against Russia’s “illegal, provocative and disruptive” activities. “The deteriorating trend in relations can only change if Russia stops its disruptive behaviour”, Michel warned on Twitter.
According to a Kremlin statement, Putin said that “although Russia and the EU remain very important partners for each other in the area of trade and investment, the current state of Russian-European relations cannot be considered satisfactory”. In his view, a return to cooperation in a “pragmatic and respectful manner would be in the common interest”. The two presidents reportedly shared a common view on the importance of intensifying cooperation in specific areas such as healthcare, the climate agenda, and regional conflict resolution, according to the Kremlin.
According to both sides, the Covid-19 pandemic, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, Libya, Ukraine and Belarus were the topics discussed.
See the European Council press release: https://bit.ly/34WH4dm (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)