French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday there was a possibility of a new common defense and cybersecurity "architecture" for the European Union and Russia.
PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th August, 2018) French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday there was a possibility of a new common defense and cybersecurity "architecture" for the European Union and Russia.
"In terms of cybersecurity, in terms of defense, of strategic partnership, it is possible, in fact, to envisage terms of a new common architecture between the European Union and Russia," Macron said at a joint press conference with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto.
The French president added that there would have to be certain prerequisites, such as Europe becoming sufficiently strong.
"When we do not have the Europe with sufficiently strong defense and security, it makes no sense to go talk to special partners ... Furthermore, Russia could also provide indication of moving forward on several issues," Macron said.
The Minsk agreements on the internal conflict in Ukraine, brokered by Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany, would be one of those issues, the French president noted.
"In compliance with the principles and within the framework of the [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] OSCE we could move forward with Russia to normalize the things and go even further. We are not talking about forgetting everything that happened in the last few years. It would not be a good method, in my opinion, and this is not what is expected from us. This is simply a realistic way, with the preconditions that I have just mentioned, of going forward in terms of cooperation," Macron explained.
The French president stated that such a progress was possible, but required the desire on part of both sides.
Macron stressed that the European Union was interested in strategic partnership, including on defense, with its "closest neighbors."
"We are interested in having a strategic partnership with Turkey, as well as with Russia, that allows to stabilize the relations with the European Union in the long term," the French president said.
The relations between Russia and the European Union soured in the last few years, in part over their differences on the internal conflict in Ukraine.
Since 2014, the European Union has imposed and extended a number of restrictive measures on Crimea and Russia over their reunification. The peninsula held a referendum, where over 90 percent of the voters backed joining Russia. However, Kiev and the European Union do not recognize the results of the referendum.
In addition, Russia has faced numerous accusations of attempts to meddle in the internal affairs of some European countries. Russian officials have strongly refuted such allegations, pointing out that they had been unsubstantiated.
