France and Germany want an EU summit with Putin

It is unclear whether all 27 EU leaders will participate, or only Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel.

France and Germany proposed a European Union summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin today in a bid to improve relations, two diplomats said. This potentially paves the way for the first such meeting in 2014, Reuters reported.

Such an event will follow another of US President Joe Biden’s summit with Putin in Geneva earlier this month, and reflects concerns in Paris and Berlin that the EU’s approach to Russia in recent years has focused mainly on sanctions against Moscow. BTA.

We need a discussion on how to break away from this negative spiral, but we need to move forward unitedly, said a senior EU diplomat, adding that some Baltic states, which are cautious about Russia, may not agree to such a high level meeting.

Such summits were suspended after Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014.

Tomorrow, EU leaders will discuss a new strategy for managing deteriorating relations with Russia at their two-day meeting in Brussels. Germany and France gave some ideas for the debate on Russia at the summit. Merkel mentioned earlier that it is not only the United States that needs to talk to Russia (and China) at the highest level.

“Russia is a neighbor. Such a format was already used in 2007 in Finland,” said a staff member preparing for the meeting.

Earlier this month, a strategic document from the European Commission and the EU’s diplomatic service said that despite years of tension, the EU and Russia have a fundamental shared responsibility for peace and security on the European continent.

Despite Western accusations that Russia is behind cyberattacks, misinformation and other insidious actions, which the Kremlin denies, the country is the community’s fifth largest trading partner and the EU is Russia’s largest foreign investor.