MOSCOW, November 19 (Sputnik) — Hungary's Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto on Wednesday urged a revival of "pragmatic relations" between Russia and the European Union following their months-long standoff over Ukraine.
"I think that both Europe and Russia are interested in resuming pragmatic relations, pragmatic cooperation, based on mutual respect and respect for international laws," Szijjarto told Sputnik Radio at the opening of a Hungarian visa center in Moscow.
The Hungarian foreign policy chief, who is in Moscow to meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, told Sputnik Radio that Hungary hoped for the "soonest end to crisis in Ukraine", stressing that negotiations were the desired means of resolving it.
"To do this, they need a dialogue and that everyone adheres to the Minsk protocol," Szijjarto said.
The Hungarian minister added that Russia was Hungary's "most important trade and economic partner outside the EU", but Europe's sanctions against Russia and its reciprocal ban on EU food imports had hurt the flow of trade between Moscow and Budapest.
"Over the first eight months of this year, our trade turnover shrank by ten percent. So, now we are trying to intensify cooperation in the spheres that have not been affected by Western sanctions or the Russian imports embargo," Szijjarto told Sputnik Radio.
The minister reaffirmed Budapest's commitment to consolidated EU action on Russia, but said Hungary was not in favor of more sanctions.
This comes after EU foreign ministers met in Brussels on Monday to discuss the ongoing crisis in eastern Ukraine. Szijjarto claimed the Foreign Affairs Council did not raise the issue of new, tighter sanctions against Russia, though he admitted there was an initiative to put it on the agenda.
Relations between Russia and the West hit rock bottom after the start of the military conflict in Ukraine. Brussels has slapped Moscow with several rounds of sanctions over its alleged involvement. In April, Moscow responded with a one-year ban on the import of certain food products from the European Union.
