(VOVworld) - Relations with the EU will remain Russia's foreign policy priority, despite the "complexity of the current situation," Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday. "Relations with the EU - our neighbor and our largest trading partner - objectively will remain one of the priorities of Russian foreign policy in the years ahead," according to a year-end statement published on the ministry's website.

On Russian-US relations, the ministry stressed that restoration is possible only if Washington is ready to conduct an equal dialogue with Moscow, respecting each other's interests. "Russia-US high- and highest-level contacts are maintained on the situation in Ukraine, Syrian crisis, Iran nuclear settlement, resolution of conflict in the Middle East and North Africa," the statement said. Relations between Russia and the West have become tense after both sides accused each other of intervening in the Ukraine’s crisis, resulting in sanctions that have caused losses for both.