Lavrov: EU relations with Russia destroyed by ‘Brussels’ unilateral decisions’
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia has no relations with the European Union. According to him, the EU has destroyed all mechanisms and infrastructure with its unilateral steps, reports the Russian news agency Interfax.
"We have a good neighbor China, and the European Union is also our neighbor We have always been interested in promoting our relations across all directions. Europe has severed these relations, simply destroying all the mechanisms that were created for many years. We have only a few partners, some European countries that want to be guided by their national interests. Then, probably, objectively it leads to the fact that our relations with China are developing faster than what is left of relations with European countries," Lavrov said at a press conference in China.
"There are no relations with the European Union as an organization, the entire infrastructure of these relations is destroyed by unilateral decisions of Brussels," Lavrov said, noting that if Brussels considers it possible to "eliminate this anomaly", Russia will be ready for this on the basis of equality and balance of interests.
According to the Russian Foreign Minister, "The United States, Europe and the West in general are essentially replacing diplomacy by imposing on all others their rules, which, they believe, should be the basis of the world order. This is not international law, but the rules. Sanctions are one of the types of such rules," Lavrov added.
On March 22, for the first time since 1989, the EU imposed sanctions against China for human rights violations in Xinjiang region. Four people and one organization were added to the sanctions list.
In total, the EU imposed sanctions against 11 people and 4 organizations for human rights violations in the world. They were placed on a new sanctions list. Four Russian high-ranking officials were recently added to the list for the prosecution of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.