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Russia vows to preserve relations with Europe

23 October 2014 19:14 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Moscow was not going to replace its relations with Europe by the cooperation with Asia-Pacific region, Russian foreign minister said on Thursday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"We've never pretended that our links with the East and Asia-Pacific regions would go ahead to substitute those with Europe and the West as a whole," Sergei Lavrov said at a meeting of the Valdai Club, an annual gathering of international experts.

Russia hopes to maintain its cooperation momentum with European countries despite the position of the European Union (EU) over the unsettled Ukraine crisis, the diplomat added.

"Now when Russia's European, U.S. and some other partners decided to enact a list of unilateral measures of enforcement, we understandably go on to intensify the eastern direction," Lavrov said, noting that has been done only "in parallel with relations with Europe."

On Oct. 14, Lavrov said Russia saw no alternative to relations with the EU and was ready to discuss the establishment of a free trade zone with the bloc.