Macron says wants ‘European approach’ in dialogue with Putin | National

“But above all, we have rebuilt those channels of discussion at a technical level,” he said in the interview released on Tuesday.

“My wish is to share this with my European partners and to have a well-organised European approach,” he added. 

Dialogue with Putin should take place without “too many interlocutors, with a given mandate”, he said.

Macron said last year he believed Europe should reach back out to Putin, rather than leaving the United States alone to take the lead in negotiations to end Russia’s war against Ukraine.

“Whether we like Russia or not, Russia will still be there tomorrow,” Suddeutsche Zeitung quoted the French president as saying.

“It is therefore important that we structure the resumption of a European discussion with the Russians, without naivety, without putting pressure on the Ukrainians — but also so as not to depend on third parties in this discussion.”

The Kremlin said Tuesday it welcomed Macron’s approach and was awaiting a concrete proposition for further talks. 

“Russia has always advocated maintaining dialogue, which, in our view and firm belief, can help resolve the most urgent and most difficult problems,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including AFP.  

After Macron sent his adviser Emmanuel Bonne to the Kremlin last week, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had said Putin was ready to receive the French leader’s call.

“If you want to call and discuss something seriously, then call,” he said in an interview to state-run broadcaster RT.

The French and Russian presidents last spoke in July, in their first known phone talks in over two-and-a-half years.

The French leader tried in a series of phone calls in 2022 to warn Putin against invading Ukraine and travelled to Moscow early that year.

He kept up phone contact with Putin after the invasion but talks had ceased after a September 2022 phone call.