Федеративная Республика Германия
Press release on Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s meeting with German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel and leading representatives of Russian and German business circles
On February 7, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with German Vice-Chancellor and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Sigmar Gabriel on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. The sides discussed the state and prospects of Russian-German relations and topical issues on the European agenda, including the situation in Ukraine.
The conversation was followed by an expanded meeting involving representatives of Russian and German business circles. The sides exchanged opinions and focused on the tremendous potential of bilateral trade and economic and investment cooperation. German business persons underscored their readiness to continue working actively on the Russian market and said they were extremely interested in seeing an end to the confrontation caused by sanctions. Representatives of national business communities called for reinvigorating the time-tested mechanisms of Russian-German economic and other ties.
Mr Lavrov set forth Russian assessments of the current situation in Russian-German and Russia-EU relations and noted the unjustified and unconstructive nature of the EU sanctions against Russia. In this connection, the special role of business circles in restoring the atmosphere of trust and eliminating artificial barriers that hamper the creation of a common economic, cultural and humanitarian infrastructure from Lisbon to Vladivostok was noted.
February 7, 2015