Macron-Putin Meeting: What Goals Did the Parties Pursue?

• 06.01.2017, 12:24
•  Europe,  World

kremlin.ru

The most important global problems cannot be solved without dialogue with Russia. Such statement was made by the French President Emanuel Macron at the joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Paris.

Understanding the importance of cooperation with Russia by the new French leadership is also evident from the fact that Putin was the first foreign leader to be received after the President Macron took the office. On May 29, during the talks, as a priority, the sides discussed issues concerning the fight against IS terrorist group in Syria. "We need a political solution to this crisis in order to re-establish peace," said Macron, adding that they saw a "red line" for the use of chemical weapons.

Among the topics of discussion was the situation in Ukraine, concerning which the sides expressed confidence that the work should continue under the Normandie format. At the same time, Macron said that in case of escalation of the situation in eastern Ukraine, France is ready for new sanctions against Russia.

Sides spoke also about the persecution of sexual minorities in Chechnya, the presidential elections in France and so on. At the conference Macron again accused the Russian media of spreading false information about him. His words particularly refer to Sputnik and RT. The Russian side once again denied the allegations. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Kremlin disagrees with Macron's statements on Sputnik and RT.

It was initially planned that the two leaders' meeting would last for two hours, but negotiations lasted longer, indicating that they were not very smooth. Macron warned that he would be a tough negotiator during the meeting with Putin. In any case, the parties tried to avoid confrontation at their very first meeting.

On the other hand, by this meeting Putin wanted to improve the bad image of France as a result of the presidential elections, and Macron in turn wanted to demonstrate that steps had been taken leading to France's increasing role in international relations.

Interestingly, Macron-Putin meeting was held after the "Great Seven" summit in Italy. It seems Macron told Putin the club's conclusions, from which Russia had been removed.

Thus, the Macron-Putin meeting cannot be viewed as a positive development in Russian-French relations (as seen from Macron's statements, Paris policy towards Russia will be identical with European policy), but rather as the first step of activating France's role in the international arena.