New EU foreign chief in first Russia visit

(MOSCOW) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday said Russia and the European Union should deepen ties as he met the bloc's new foreign affairs chief on her first visit to the country.

"The president singled out partnership for modernisation as a key dimension of our cooperation," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters after the meeting with Catherine Ashton at the Kremlin.

Kommersant daily reported earlier this month that the EU had sent the Kremlin a document dubbed "Partnership for Modernisation" in which it offers to help modernise the Russian economy, stressing however that the modernisation was not possible without democratic reforms.

Lavrov indicated Russia wanted to focus on "concrete, practically significant" areas of cooperation such as economics, social sphere, education, technology, innovation and governance, among others.

"I believe the first contours of the future partnership have already taken shape," he said.

The Kremlin's top ideologue Vladislav Surkov said earlier this month Russia would not rush political reforms, saying he favoured a path of "authoritarian modernization."

Ties between Russia and the EU have been strained for some time now and the two sides have yet to sign a new partnership and cooperation agreement that expired in 2007.

Ashton, who became the bloc's foreign affairs chief late last year, was on her first trip to Russia in her current capacity.

That she visited Moscow so early in her tenure highlighted the "significance of this strategic partnership" between the EU and Russia, Ashton told reporters.

The Russian and EU leaders will meet for a regular summit in Russia's southern city of Rostov-on-Don on May 31-June 1, Lavrov said.