Macron to seek common ground with Putin on Russia trip
With relations between the West and Russia at historic lows, French President Emmanuel Macron travels to St Petersburg today to seek common ground with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The talks come at a crucial time for a relationship that has been marked by sometimes harsh exchanges but also an awareness that the two need to work together on crises spanning Syria, Iran and Ukraine.
Having bet on turning US President Donald Trump into a buddy with charm and flattery, Mr Macron, 40, has taken a different approach with Mr Putin.
At their first meeting in the Versailles Palace outside Paris, Mr Macron criticised Russian state media for spreading “lying propaganda” during the French election campaign.
“I do believe that we should never be weak with President Putin. When you are weak, he uses it,” Mr Macron said before his trip to Washington last month. During his three-day US tour, Mr Macron had sought to persuade Mr Trump to respect the 2015 deal that puts curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme – to no avail.
This issue is now seen by some analysts and diplomats as an area where France and its European partners Germany and Britain can find common ground with the Kremlin and, perhaps, a means to improve badly strained ties.
The EU and Moscow, signatories to the Iran deal with China and the US, want to maintain the accord and fear a return of destabilising, unilateralist US policies in the Middle East.
“It creates a new basis for co-operation between Russia and Europe, without ignoring the differences that still exist,” a Russian diplomat said.
Those differences remain large and unresolved on a host of issues, including the war in Ukraine – where Russia backs separatists in the east of the country – as well as the use of chemical weapons.
France joined western countries in expelling Russian envoys after the attempted murder of a former Russian spy in the British city of Salisbury on March 4, allegedly with a Russian-made chemical weapon.
Mr Macron has also been critical of Mr Putin’s shielding of Syrian leader Bashar Al Assad at the UN Security Council, where Russia has thwarted attempts to apportion blame for chemical attacks blamed on Assad’s regime.
Mr Macron is seeking “a serious dialogue to try to find common ground”, an aide said last week. “We are aware of the difficulties.”
France has taken the lead in Europe in trying to find a political settlement to the Syrian civil war and the issue is likely to figure prominently, with Iran, in the talks in St Petersburg.
Accompanied by his wife Brigitte, Mr Macron is due to meet Mr Putin today at the Constantine Palace outside St Petersburg. Tomorrow, the French couple will honour victims of the 1941 to 1944 German siege of St Petersburg – then known as Leningrad – something very personal for Mr Putin, whose parents suffered in the battle.
Later, Mr Macron will be guest of honour, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, an annual gathering of the country’s political and business elite.
The personal relationship between Mr Putin and Mr Macron will face scrutiny in only their third face-to-face meeting and the first since Mr Putin won re-election in March.
Mr Macron pointedly did not congratulate his Russian counterpart on winning a fourth term as president – after an election marred by “violations and shortcomings” in the view of the European Union.
“I think that Macron and Putin could get on very well,” said Russia’s former ambassador in France, Alexandre Orlov.
“They are both very cultured. It would be completely normal if Macron develops a better relationship with Putin than with Trump, who are two completely different characters,” Mr Orlov said.
“Trump is an uncultured man, violent and brutal.”
Mr Macron has criticised Mr Putin’s shielding of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad at the UN Security Council