On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with French President Emmanuel Macron in a meeting which occurred without media fanfare or notice. That meeting addressed the topics of Syria and Ukraine and came at the request of Russian President Vladimir Putin. France and Russia recently coordinated for the first time on a joint humanitarian mission to provide aid to the country, which was unprecedented, being also the first time that a Western country has cooperated with Russia on such matters. Also on topic was the matter of refugees from Syria, which has been a major political problem in Europe during recent months, especially for Italy and Germany, as many of Syria’s refugees fled to neighboring states or even countries within the EU. Lavrov’s meeting with the French leader came a week after Putin’s meeting with US President Donald Trump in Helsinki, in which Putin discussed the matter of Syria refugees and the reconstruction of the Middle Eastern country with the American President.
France24 reports:
PARIS (AFP) –
French President Emmanuel Macron held an unannounced meeting on Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov over the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, his office said.
Lavrov was accompanied by Russia’s army chief Valery Gerasimov to the Elysee just a few hours after the two met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her foreign minister Heiko Maas in Berlin.
The meeting had been requested by Russian President Vladimir Putin who had spoken with his French counterpart last week, Macron’s office said.
On Syria, Moscow raised the subject of the “return of refugees” who had fled to Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey as well as Germany.
Paris and Moscow last weekend carried out a joint humanitarian operation at a Syrian rebel enclave taken by regime forces in April. It was the first humanitarian aid mission between Russia and a Western country.
The talks also included discussion of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the Elysee said.
Paris and Berlin are both part of a long-stalled peace process in the smouldering Ukraine war, which has claimed 10,000 lives since 2014.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also attended Tuesday’s meeting.
Macron’s meeting with the Russians came a week after the summit between Putin and US President Donald Trump, where Moscow had proposed cooperation with Washington on the question of Syrian refugees and rebuilding the country.
The refugee problem almost saw Merkel’s coalition collapse, and had some influence in Italy’s recent fruit basket turnover elections. They’ve also been a matter of contention in Spain, France, Turkey, and Austria, among others. A recent EU meeting resulted in a voluntary program of migrant accommodation for EU countries, meaning that each member of the union accepts migrants on a voluntary basis. Secondary migration within the EU was also confronted. Specific actions were quick to materialize following the EU summit in Brussels, wherein the German interior Minister sought to further put a stop to secondary migration, and the proposal of plans to deport migrants who had originally filed for asylum elsewhere.
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