Paris aims to intensify dialogue with Moscow on a wide range of issues, including European security, the Arctic, regional conflicts, space and human rights, the French president's special envoy for security dialogue with Russia said, while announcing his upcoming talks with Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov
PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th February, 2020) Paris aims to intensify dialogue with Moscow on a wide range of issues, including European security, the Arctic, regional conflicts, space and human rights, the French president's special envoy for security dialogue with Russia said, while announcing his upcoming talks with Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov.
Speaking at the Senate, Pierre Vimont said that France wants to advance dialogue with Russia both in traditional areas of cooperation - such as strategic stability in Europe and cybersecurity - and new ones. According to him, this dialogue must be "large-scale" and "creative."
"We want to talk to our Russian partners about issues related to cooperation in space ... We want to speak about civil nuclear power. We want to talk about human rights and civil society contacts: the Trianon Dialogue was launched in 2017 after Mr [Vladimir Putin] Putin's visit to Versailles. We want to talk about all [regional] conflicts that exist at the moment," Vimont stated.
He specified that the regional crises in question are Ukraine, Nagorno-Karabakh, Georgia and Transnistria.
Paris, he went on, wants dialogue on the Arctic, Syria and Libya. France also witnesses Russia's rising presence in Africa, according to the politician.
"There is an idea to restart the dialogue with Russia at the bilateral level, to some extent involving our European partners in those matters in which Europe has been virtually absent in recent years," he stressed.
Russia has already responded to the offer to boost dialogue and proposed five major areas of cooperation, "but in a slightly different manner," Vimont noted. Now, the two sides need to bring their stances closer and create relevant working groups, Emmanuel Macron's envoy said, adding that he would focus on the matter during his meeting with Ushakov in the "coming weeks."
