Macron to meet Putin ahead of G7 summit

PARIS - French President Emmanuel Macron was scheduled to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday for a rare visit.

Macron would welcome Putin at 5:30 pm at his official holiday residence in Bregancon in southern France, days before he hosts other world leaders including US President Donald Trump for the August 24-26 G7 summit in Biarritz.

Topping the meeting would be the situation in Ukraine after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Aug 6 pressed Putin for a resumption of peace talks, a French official said that.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin would also discuss with Macron bilateral cooperation.

"The topics are obvious: bilateral Russian-French cooperation, which has a very rich economic content, as well as international problems," he told reporters.

The leaders will also discuss prospects for work on the Normandy Four format, he added.

The Normandy Four consists of Russian, Ukrainian, French and German senior representatives who aim to resolve the Ukrainian crisis.

Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said that the dialogue between France and Russia had "intensified" in the recent months and that Putin's visit was the "logical continuation" of his regular contact with Macron.

Alexander Baunov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said Macron would be looking for ways to resuscitate the 2015 Minsk cease-fire deal which Paris and Berlin helped broker.

"The main public issue will be reviving the Minsk accords," Baunov said.

Iran will also feature high on the agenda, with Paris keen for Moscow to use its close ties with Teheran to prevent a further escalation of conflicts in the Middle East.

Tensions have shot up since Washington's unilateral pullout from a 2015 deal on the Iranian nuclear drive known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JPCOA.

The move prompted Iran to step up its nuclear activities.

"There is the very immediate issue of keeping Iran from reneging on a number of other commitments," said the official, adding that JPCOA must be preserved.

"If Russia reaffirms that Iran must respect its commitments, this will strengthen our position a lot," the official added.

Agencies - Xinhua