The sea air escorted Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Poutine to Fort Brégançon, August 19, 2019. France thus formalized, in this summer framework, its offer of strategic dialogue to Russia, in the name of European security. For their new tête-à-tête, Friday, June 26, the French and Russian presidents had to talk to each other through screens. They could nevertheless be in Moscow by the end of August, Mr. Macron accepting the invitation of his counterpart, “If the sanitary conditions allow it”.
Not yet out of the management of the pandemic, the two officials exchanged at length, for two hours, to “Follow up on the Brégançon agenda”, according to the Elysée. This agenda did not produce concrete results, but raised a lot of concern in Eastern Europe. “The idea was not to assess after six months or a year”, do we underline at the Elysée, where we speak rather of “Long-term path”.
The strategic dialogue with Russia, led on the French side by the diplomat Pierre Vimont, will take the form of working groups. The list may be long – from the fight against terrorism to the Arctic, including civil nuclear power, strategic stability and frozen conflicts in Europe, Iran, cybersecurity… -, it shows more of a desire for full dialogue and clearly achievable objectives. Ukraine provides the most egregious example, despite the holding of the Elysee summit in December, of the difficulty of progress on the ground.
Willingness to maintain multilateralism
The two officials discussed all the complex files of the moment. On Libya, Mr. Macron was disturbed by foreign military interference and defended the idea of a cease-fire on the basis of current positions. Regarding the upcoming renewal at the Security Council of the system of humanitarian corridors in Syria, Moscow insists that most of the aid will go through Damascus. Paris, for its part, identifies other urgent needs, in the north-east and north-west, requiring the shortest route to be taken. Concerning the moratorium on the intermediate nuclear forces (FNI) proposed by Vladimir Poutine in Europe, in view of the extinction of the treaty FNI, France agrees to exchange on the subject, but all the technical aspects remain to be discussed.
Wanting to see a hint of motivation, the Elysee noted that the conversations between the two heads of state were meticulously prepared by the Russian side. The numerous exchanges in recent months between Paris and Moscow on the holding of a hypothetical “P5” summit of the five permanent members of the Security Council have not succeeded. But they show, on the surface, a common desire to keep multilateralism afloat. The permanent seat on the Security Council is for the two countries a fundamental element of their international stature.
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