Russia hopes relations with EU will become warmer after Borrell's visit

Russia hopes that relations with the European Union could become warmer following the upcoming visit of EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Russia's permanent representative to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, said in an interview with Sputnik.

"I hope so. However, I cannot say that our relations are deeply frozen," Chizhov said, when asked if Borrell's visit to Moscow, planned for February 4-6, could "unfreeze" the bilateral relations.

Russia and the bloc maintain contacts on trade, politics, personal data protection and implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the diplomat noted.

Chizhov expressed hope that similar meetings would be held more often, either in the Russian capital or in Brussels.

"The latest visit to Russia was paid by Federica Mogherini, Josep Borrell's predecessor in the post, back in April 2017. Of course, there have been both phone conversations and meetings on the sidelines of different events, but no full-scale visits have been paid since," Chizhov recalled. (/Sputnik)

( With inputs from ANI )