The German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (Ostausschuss) calls for more active contacts and closer dialogue between the European Union and Russia, the committee's chairman Wolfgang Buechele said ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with representatives of German businesses on Thursday.

"We hope that many German-Russian meetings at the high level held in the last months represent the harbinger of a new process of easing tensions, which we all urgently need right now," Buechele said in a statement obtained by TASS. "In Moscow, we will support a more intensive dialogue and better dynamic of rapprochement between the EU and Russia," he added.

The Kremlin press service said earlier that at the meeting with representatives of German businesses, Putin will discuss "questions linked to the conditions and prospects for developing trade and economic relations between Russia and Germany." The sides will also discuss the implementation of joint projects, "including in energy and industrial cooperation, digital economy and agriculture," the Kremlin added.

Putin last met with representatives of German businesses in October 2017.