Paris sweet-talks Russia's veteran FM, confirming again that Macron harbors ambition of resetting French-Russian relations
This post first appeared on Russia Insider
Hosting Sergey Lavrov yesterday the French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian accused Syria's Assad of carrying out "mass killings" (without presenting any evidence) and demanded that these hypothetical killings stop. (Note: that that stops well short of demanding that "Assad must go".)
Other than that it was all music to Russian ears. Le Drian said France and Russia were "facing the same threat of terrorism", claimed France was "neither looking to isolate Russia from the rest of Europe nor weaken it economically", insisted Macron's administration wants to "work together in a pragmatic and concrete way" with Moscow.
The French FM also pointed out French business has continued investing in Russia in spite of EU sanctions, congratulated himself on the quality of his relationship with Lavrov, and insisted the two could now enter into concrete talks to help resolve the conflict in Syria.
He ended the address to the press by speaking about "the spirit of trust to understand each other better" which he said has been missing so far, but has now been established and should be continued.
The former French defense minister was diplomacy personified, which is downright revolutionary in this day and age, at least where chief western 'diplomats' are concerned.
This confirms the Russia reset Macron wants is very much still on the agenda in Paris for now.
The question of course is, does Macron have the backbone to see it through, and is he willing to offer substance to get it?
This post first appeared on Russia Insider
Anyone is free to republish, copy, and redistribute the text in this content (but not the images or videos) in any medium or format, with the right to remix, transform, and build upon it, even commercially, as long as they provide a backlink and credit to Russia Insider. It is not necessary to notify Russia Insider. Licensed Creative Commons
Our commenting rules: You can say pretty much anything except the F word. If you are abusive, obscene, or a paid troll, we will ban you. Full statement from the Editor, Charles Bausman.