On Monday, the Makron is driving Putin to the exhibition in Versailles
Moscow. May 29. INTERFAX.RU — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday will make a blitz visit to Paris, where he will hold talks with the new President of France Emmanuel Macron.
Putin will visit France at the invitation of the President of Macron. These days in the Grand Trianon Palace of the National Museum of the château de Versailles will host the exhibition of the Hermitage, dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the first visit of Peter I in France. According to Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, the visit of Peter I in 1717 was historic, since it was established regular diplomatic relations between the two countries and was appointed the first permanent representative of Russia in France.
During the first telephone conversation of Putin with the new President of France on may 18, Makron has invited the Russian leader together to visit this exhibition.
“And in relation to the joint visit to the exhibition to get acquainted with each other, to hold informal talks in a narrow composition, to better feel the nuances of the positions of Russia and France to establish working contact between the presidents of the E. Macron and Vladimir Putin,” — said Ushakov on the eve of Putin’s visit.
From the Russian side, according to him, the idea was supported. “We believe that indeed a visit to Versailles provides the opportunity Frank and trustful exchange of views on a wide range of issues,” — said Ushakov.
He noted that the program of the upcoming meeting “interesting and rich”. “The talks will be held in the format of “one + two”, which will give the opportunity to speak frankly and to feel each other better. After that, negotiations will be continued in the extended format within the framework of a working Breakfast,” — said the assistant of the head of state, noting that at the end of the talks, the presidents will visit the exhibition.
Bilateral agenda
On the Russian side, the bilateral political contacts are in poor condition, the Kremlin hopes that the presidents of Russia and France will assess this issue. “We believe that when discussing bilateral issues, the presidents will be held as political contacts, which do not satisfy the Russian side,” — said the presidential aide.
He recalled that many of the traditional mechanisms of bilateral cooperation are collapsed, do not work by the intergovernmental Commission under the chairmanship of heads of governments of Russia and France, a large parliamentary Commission headed by the chairmen of the lower houses of parliaments and the cooperation Council on security issues in which both sides includes the Ministers of defense and Ministers of foreign Affairs.
“There is one only, but also a very important Commission from the point of view of economic cooperation, the Council on economic, financial, industrial and trade issues,” said Ushakov.
According to him, the Russian side expects that the Makron will soon appoint the head of this Council vis-a-vis the Minister of economic development of Russia Maxim Oreshkin. Earlier in the Council’s work on the French side participated the Makron.
The Kremlin said that at the meeting the two leaders will discuss the state of political, economic and trade issues. “This is important given the upcoming St. Petersburg economic forum, which is expected to 180 of the French participants. Moreover, the forum will hold a business dialogue with the participation of the leading businessmen of our countries”, — said the assistant of the head of state.
A Kremlin spokesman called the poor state of bilateral trade. “Over the last three years turnover polovinika — was 22 billion dollars, now stands at 13 billion dollars. However, in the first quarter was small growth, but the trend is still deployed in a positive way, so I hope that the topic will be the subject of negotiations,” — said Ushakov.
However, the signing of documents following the talks at the highest level is not provided, said the representative of the Kremlin, the leaders agreed on further contacts. “Any signing is not provided, the presidents want to meet and to agree on subsequent contacts where there may be sign some documents,” — said Ushakov.
He added that “it is important for presidents now — to meet each other, discuss both bilateral issues and topical issues of the international situation.”