Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks during talks with Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France Jean-Yves Le Drian, Moscow, February 27, 2018

Mr Minister,

Colleagues,

Our meeting today is very important to us. We view it as part of preparations for French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Russia. We are resolved to prepare constructive talks between our presidents in keeping with the agreement they reached at Versailles to make a breakthrough in our relations. A positive stage in the preparations for the upcoming meeting of our leaders was a regular meeting of the Russian-French Economic, Financial, Industrial and Trade Council held in Moscow in December last year. The meeting between President of Russia Vladimir Putin and the heads of large French companies, which was held in January this year, also confirmed the good potential for the development of our investment and trade cooperation, as evidenced from the positive development of bilateral trade.

Our cultural cooperation invariably piques the interest of people in Russia and France. The Cross-Year of Cultural Tourism has ended recently, and we are completing preparations for our next project, the Year of Russian and French Language ​​and Literature.

Of course, today we have an opportunity to once again review the key international problems in detail and to map out our cooperation on the most important issues, including those on which our opinions differ.

Once again, welcome to Moscow.