German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Monday that economic cooperation between Germany and Russia could be possible again if the Kremlin ended its war in Ukraine.
Scholz has said in previous speeches that the West would not lift sanctions imposed on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine until Moscow withdrew its troops from Ukraine and reached a peace agreement with Kyiv.
"At the moment the relations we have are being reduced, reduced, reduced," he told the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, referring to western sanctions on Russia that have quashed bilateral trade and investment.
"But a Russia that ends the war," Scholz said, should be given a chance for renewed economic cooperation. "But that is not now."
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke; Writing by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
