Moscow is ready to search for ‘generally acceptable approaches’ together with its Western partners, including Berlin, Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said, opening talks with his German counterpart Heiko Maas.
However, the prospects for cooperation continue to be marred by the situation that emerged through no fault of Russia,
"We are ready to look for generally acceptable approaches with our German and Western partners even under the current situation, which we find utterly unsatisfactory, that has been created through no fault of ours," TASS cited Lavrov as saying. He added that the situation "continues to cast a shadow over any prospects for cooperation both in Europe and on the global stage as a whole."
Russia counts on cooperation on a whole range of issues in "bilateral relations, on international affairs precisely as far as Germany is willing to go," he noted. "Russian-German ties constitute a relationship between the two leading powers on the European continent. Europe’s situations have always depended on their state of affairs," Lavrov pointed out.
"When hard times struck these relations, the entire continent was affected. On the contrary, when Russia and Germany were able to come to terms with each other that was beneficial for all Europeans," he noted.
Lavrov stressed that "the historic reconciliation between our two peoples, which took place, in a very large measure, thanks to our country’s active support for German unification, was of paramount importance for Europe’s destiny." "It was hoped that this would be followed by a genuine unification of Europe, that the common European home based on equal and indivisible security will be built. Unfortunately, this did not happen, but we do bear in mind that strategic objective," he added.
