Excerpts from Reuters interview with Russian president: Part 1

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Following is the first of three sections giving translated excerpts from Reuters interview with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, conducted earlier this week at the Kremlin:

REUTERS: Could you set out your priorities for the EU-Russia summit ?

MEDVEDEV:

I think it should be a successful summit and I hope that we can make progress on the most complex problem of recent times - preparing a framework agreement between Russia and the European Union. Besides that, naturally, we will look at all those questions that have accumulated, in an absolutely amicable way, even though in some areas the work has perhaps not proceeded as intensively as we all would have liked.

Nonetheless, the time and place of the summit oblige us to look at all areas of the relationship between the Russian Federation and European Union.

We have many joint projects. I will mention just one figure that surprised even me: Russia is the third largest exporter to the countries of the European Union. The fourth most important market for EU products is the Russian Federation...

REUTERS:

But is there any particular priority issue ?

MEDVEDEV:

You know, it seems to me that the main priority now is just to keep moving in all directions we have already set out. What do I mean? If we are now ready to sign a new framework agreement with the European Union, that is the main task. It must be a serious document but at the same time not burdened with absolutely concrete things; to a large degree it should be a framework agreement that will set out the basic positions for development in the years ahead.

From the legal and organization point of view, that is the main priority of the summit. In terms of priorities for the relationship between Russia and the European Union - this is a relationship between the Russian Federation, a major European state which defines itself and conducts itself as part of Europe, and the European Union, a community representing a significant number of European governments.

And there are priorities in the areas where we traditionally work together, which I have not mentioned yet...I mean energy cooperation including investment elements, I mean political cooperation, I mean cooperation in fighting international crime, I mean social contacts.

REUTERS:

Do you think the European Union is a difficult partner? There are often disagreements among EU members, sometimes concerning Russia.

MEDVEDEV:

No, I think the European Union is a comfortable partner on the whole. The European Union is not a united body but a union of various governments and one of the key principles of the work of the European Union is the principle of European solidarity.