BRUSSELS. Dec 2 (Interfax) - The strength of relations between Russia and the European Union is being tested today, but the parties still have a chance to resolve their disagreements, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin has said.
"We will work in today's conditions and we are always ready for dialogue," he said at the eighth European Russian Forum at the European Parliament in Brussels on Monday.
"I am convinced that we are able to resolve all existing disagreements, including those surrounding Ukraine. But if we want this to happen, we need to abandon this vicious practice of unilateral measures and attempts to resolve all issues seeking to meet only one's own narrow interests," Karasin said.
When commenting on relations between Russia and NATO, Karasin said that the alliance's decision to suspend all practical cooperation with Moscow "hurt [NATO's] own interests" and security in Europe.
"At the same time, I would not describe the current state of affairs in the world as a new edition of the Cold War. We have no grounds for that. Resorting to confrontation and the "quid pro quo" principle" is not our choice," he said.
Today's decline in Russia-EU relations is a result of "serious systemic problems that have accumulated over the past 20 years," the Russian deputy foreign minister said.