Macron had surprised the world last week with his white-knuckle grasp of President Donald Trump’s hand when the pair met for the first time.
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“It is. a moment of truth”, said Mr Macron, who became France’s youngest president just three weeks ago. Putin bet wrongly on Macron’s far-right opponent Marine Le Pen, hosting her at the Kremlin in March, before Macron then handily beat her.
Since being elected, Macron appears to have toned down the rhetoric, although he noted the two leaders still had “diverging positions” in their first phone call.
Syria agreed in September 2013 to destroy its chemical weapons programme under a deal negotiated with the United States and Russian Federation after hundreds of people were killed in a sarin gas attack in the outskirts of the capital, Damascus. One day before the election Macron’s campaign staff alleged that their computers were hacked and a mix of fake and authentic documents attached to the candidate were posted on social media “in order to create confusion and misinformation”. Moscow strongly denied all allegations of election meddling.
After the deterioration in ties under Macron’s predecessor, Socialist Francois Hollande, Putin expressed the hope that in Macron and his team there will be “more people who understand us”.
Dismissing concerns among some in the global community that Moscow poses a danger, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Western countries should not “invent imaginary threats”, Le Figaro reported on Tuesday.
Macron further said that France and Russian Federation could work together towards a settlement in Syria noting that “it is necessary to seek an inclusive political solution”. There are bombings in Europe, in Paris, in Russian Federation, in Belgium.
When asked about Putin’s claim that authorities were investigating the human rights abuses, Deumier said “that is not true”. The exhibition celebrates the ties between Russian Federation and France forged 300 years ago by Peter the Great when he visited France after encouraging diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Putin’s visit to France was described as a working meeting timed to coincide with the opening of a show at the Grand Trianon, in the Versailles complex.
“President Trump is acting in accordance with his competence, in accordance with his law and Constitution”, Putin said.
Ushakov noted that he expects an “interesting discussion” on ways to implement a 2015 Minsk deal for eastern Ukraine, which was brokered by Germany and France. He said Paris and Moscow have both points of disagreement and agreement over Syria.
Macron said he would make “not a single concession” to Russian Federation on the long-running conflict in Ukraine as he and his G-7 counterparts said they were prepared to strengthen sanctions against Moscow. Ukraine and Russian Federation have blamed one another for the lack of progress.
Macron also stressed that the use of chemical weapons by the Russian-backed Assad regime is “a red line” for France. He added that last week’s suicide attack on Manchester Arena emphasized the need to pool efforts in the fight against worldwide terrorism, so the talks will also touch on that. The Kremlin may simply choose to move onto the next challenge, whether that is the United Kingdom election next week or the German election in September.
“It could be Russian Federation, but it could be China, could also be lots of other people”.
BEARDSLEY: Macron and Putin said their meeting was frank, direct, and they spoke of every topic from the Ukraine war to gays being killed in Chechnya.
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In April, Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that around a hundred gay and bisexual men were being detained and tortured in ‘concentration camps’ in Chechnya.
