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| French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian (L) and Defence Minister Florence Parly held the first meeting in the so-called "2+2" format suspended after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 |
France said Monday that the time had come to start easing tensions with Russia as senior ministers held four-way talks in Moscow not seen since the crisis over Ukraine broke out.
French
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said there was a "window of
opportunity" for resolving the Ukraine conflict after a landmark prisoner
exchange on Saturday, but that it was too soon to talk of lifting sanctions on
Russia.
Le Drian
and French Defence Minister Florence Parly were in Moscow for talks under the
so-called "2+2" format that been suspended since Russia's 2014 annexation
of Crimea from Ukraine.
French
President Emmanuel Macron has launched a diplomatic push for a detente in
Europe's relations with Russia.
"The
time has come, the time is right, to work towards reducing distrust," Le
Drian told a press conference of the four ministers after the talks.
"We
have come to suggest... a new agenda of trust and security."
He said the
prisoner exchange -- which saw 35 detainees handed over on each side -- had
created goodwill that needed to be reinforced.
"It is
not yet the deadline for lifting sanctions. It's a new state of mind, which we
have not seen for several years," Le Drian said.
Lavrov said
progress on rebuilding ties with Europe was "possible and necessary".
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Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) said progress on rebuilding ties
with Europe
was "possible and necessary"
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Prisoner
swap 'a good sign'
He welcomed
recent statements by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as "very, very
positive" and described the prisoner exchange as "a good sign"
for future progress.
Ties
between Russia and Europe have been deeply strained since 2014, when the
European Union and United States imposed sanctions over the annexation of
Crimea and Russia's support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Macron
embarked on his bid to bring Russia in from the cold this summer, hosting
President Vladimir Putin in southern France last month and renewing high-level
diplomatic contacts.
The two men
spoke by phone on Sunday, hailing the prisoner exchange as a step forward in
peace efforts.
Attempts to
resolve the Ukraine crisis have revived since the election in April of
comedian-turned-president Zelensky, who has made ending the conflict his main
priority.
Macron
announced a summit under the so-called "Normandy format" of France,
Germany, Russia and Ukraine in his talks with Putin, but a date has not yet
been set.
The focus
of the summit will be reviving the Minsk accords, which Germany and France
helped to negotiate but failed to stop the fighting in eastern Ukraine, where
more than 13,000 have been killed.
Analysts
said Macron is looking to take the lead on Russia in Europe. As head of the G7
and Council of Europe, and with Germany and Britain focused on internal
politics, the French president sees an opportunity.
"Emmanuel
Macron is telling himself that if there's a chance of doing something on
Ukraine, it's now," said Florent Parmentier, a researcher at Sciences Po
university in Paris.
"It
won't be easy but it's not a rash move," he added, pointing to France's
"real diplomatic advance" by promoting Russia's return to the Council
of Europe, the continent's foremost human rights body, last June.
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