PARIS, Feb 4 (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron’s most senior diplomat was in Moscow on Tuesday to hold talks with Russian officials, said a source who was aware of the meeting and two diplomatic sources.
The first source said Emmanuel Bonne, who has been at the helm of Macron’s diplomatic cell since 2019, had met officials at the Kremlin.
He did not give more details beyond saying the aim was to have dialogue on key issues, most importantly Ukraine.
The French presidency neither confirmed nor denied the talks, but said: “As the President said during his doorstep yesterday, discussions exist at a technical level in full transparency and in consultation with President Zelenskiy and with the main European colleagues.”
The two diplomatic sources said allies had been made aware of the initiative and that Bonne had held talks with Yuri Ushakov, a senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Macron said in December that Europeans would have to re-engage in direct talks with Putin if the latest U.S.-led efforts to broker a Ukraine peace deal founder.
European leaders wary of Putin’s military ambitions have smarted at their exclusion from peace talks led by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, compelled instead to shore up Ukraine’s negotiating positions from the sidelines.
Macron told reporters on Tuesday that efforts were under way to restart dialogue with Putin.
“It’s being prepared and so there are discussions that are being held at a technical level,” he said, adding that it was being done in consultation with Ukraine.
“It’s important that the Europeans restore their own channels of discussion.”
(Reporting by John Irish, Elizabeth Pineau and Michel Rose;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Rod Nickel)
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