Financial Times Europe - 19.08.2019

Monday 19 August 2019 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 3

V I C TO R M A L L E T— PARIS

HE N RY F OY— MOSCOW

M I C H A E L P E E L— BRUSSELS

Emmanuel Macron will revive EU

attempts to persuade Vladimir Putin

to help resolve international crises

over Ukraine and Iran when the

French president hosts his Russian

counterpart at his Mediterranean holi-

day retreat today.

Mr Macron has invited Mr Putin to

the Brégançon fort as a prelude to the

Group of Seven nations’ summit which

begins in France later in the week. With

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s influence

on the wane in Germany and the UK

distracted by Brexit, Mr Macron has

become western Europe’s most active

leader on international issues, and the

EU has backed his attempts at peace-

making in Ukraine.

But an earlier attempt to court Mr

Putin by inviting him to the Palace of

Versailles in 2017 bore little fruit.

One of Mr Macron’s priorities is to

elicit a positive response from Mr Putin

to the call this month from Volodymyr

Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, for

fresh peace talks to end the fighting in

eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed

separatist militants have fought govern-

ment forces for five years.

“We are intensifying our efforts on the

question of Ukraine,” said one of Mr

Macron’s senior officials. “Ukraine is a

major security challenge at the heart

of Europe which must be resolved

so that we can have a stable relationship

with Russia.”

Strong business and trade ties make

Paris one of Moscow’s key partners in

Europe despite years of sour relations

b e t we e n Ru s s i a a n d t h e we s t.

Hopes for a productive meeting have

been boosted by last week’s transfer

of French financier Philippe Delpal

to house arrest in Russia; he had been

held in a Moscow jail for six months on

fraud charges that his lawyers say relate

to a corporate dispute with a politically

connected rival.

But French officials accept it will

not be easy to rein in the authoritarian

leader whose annexation of Crimea

from Ukraine five years ago triggered

Russia’s expulsion from what was

then the G8.

Moscow has responded tentatively to

the April election in Ukraine of Mr

Zelensky, a former comedian with no

previous political experience, and his

calls for a new initiative to solve the con-

flict in the east. France and the EU are

meanwhile urgently trying to revive

talks in the so-called “Normandy” for-

mat that brings together Russia,

Ukraine, France and Germany.

Established in 2014 during the 70th

anniversary celebrations of D-Day, the

Normandy four made initial progress on

ceasefire talks, but the initiative has

waned as the war rumbles on. “Further

meetings and renewed engagement by

Russia, as called for by Ukrainian presi-

dent Zelensky, would give fresh impetus

to the peace process,” an EU spokesper-

son said. The bloc said the Minsk agree-

ments of 2014 remained the basis for an

outcome that fully respected Ukraine’s

sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“We expect the Russian Federation to

make full use of its considerable influ-

ence over the separatists it backs to stop

the fighting immediately and to fully

implement the Minsk agreements,” the

spokesperson said. “Not to do so puts

civilian inhabitants, who have already

suffered too much, further at risk. This

is particularly pertinent following the

recent spike in ceasefire violations.”

“The French have many times come

up with a proposal to hold a summit in

the Normandy format in the near

future, including with regard to the

change of the leadership in Ukraine,” Mr

Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri

Ushakov told local newswires on Friday.

“We in general back this idea, but

believe that if the summit is held, it

should be thoroughly prepared, so that

it would be clear that when we go to this

summit we will reach politically impor-

tant results.”

Mr Macron is investing in this new

initiative despite misgivings over Rus-

sian interference in French domestic

politics and concerns about Mr Putin’s

crackdown on recent demonstrations

by his opponents in Moscow.

“The announcement of the Bré-

gançon visit — a very strong symbolic

gesture — is to an extent polluted by the

big demonstrations in Russia,” said

Thomas Gomart, a historian and

director of the French Institute of

International Relations. He added:

“Russian diplomacy does not hide its

scorn for the G7.”

Mr Macron — who has also agreed to

attend Russia’s annual May 9 celebra-

tions in Red Square next year, a show-

piece event where the Kremlin displays

its military might and closest foreign

allies — believes a strong relationship

with Mr Putin is worth the risk, his

advisers say.

“We need a better level of interna-

tional consensus than exists today,” said

the French official, citing the particu-

larly sensitive crises in Ukraine, Iran,

Syria and Libya. “The president

[Macron] does not hesitate to take the

initiative, to take risks... The fact is

that there are important convergences

possible between the European and

Russian agendas.”

As well as Ukraine, Mr Macron and

Mr Putin are also expected to discuss

Iran and the crisis in the Gulf prompted

by the US withdrawal from the Iran

nuclear agreement and Washington’s

hardening of US sanctions.

Macron to tackle Putin over Ukraine

French and Russian presidents will meet before G7 summit after Kiev plea for talks to end fighting

Emmanuel

Macron with

Vladimir Putin

in 2017 at the

Palace of

Versailles.

That meeting

between the two

presidents bore

little fruit

Philippe Wojazer/AFP/

Getty Images

‘We expect

the Russian

Federation

to make full

use of its

influence

over the

separatists

to stop the

fighting’

A M Y K A Z M I N— NEW DELHI

Isis has claimed responsibility for a

suicide bombing that killed 63 people

at a wedding reception in Kabul, high-

lighting the security challenges con-

fronting Afghanistan as President Don-

ald Trump seeks to draw down US

troopsinthecountry.

The attack, which wounded at least 180

people, took place on Saturday at a large

wedding hall in west Kabul, an area

mainly inhabited by Afghanistan’s

minority Shia Muslim community. Shia

are often targeted by the Sunni majority

in Afghanistan and neighbouring Paki-

stan, and Isis considers them heretics.

In a statement on Telegram, the mes-

saging site, the jihadi group said one of

its militants infiltrated the reception

and detonated a bomb among a crowd it

described as “infidels”.

The attack occurred just as Mr Trump

wrote on Twitter optimistically of the

prospects for a deal that would lead to

the US finally bringing home the 14,

troops it still has stationed in Afghani-

stan. He is eager to complete a pullout

before the 2020 presidential elections.

Only hours before the bombing Mr

Trump tweeted: “Just completed a very

good meeting on Afghanistan. Many on

the opposite side of this 19-year war, and

us, are looking to make a deal — if

possible!”

Isis’s claim of responsibility for the

bombing, one of the deadliest attacks in

Afghanistan in years, highlights how

other militant groups are exploiting the

turmoil ahead of any US departure.

Afghan government officials sought

to blame the Taliban for the weekend’s

carnage. “Taliban cannot absolve them-

selves of blame for they provide plat-

form for terrorists,” President Ashraf

Ghani wrote on Twitter yesterday. Mr

Ghani’s vice-presidential candidate,

Amrullah Saleh, also tweeted: “Taliban

are the inventors of suicide bombings.”

The Taliban denied any involvement.

Afghanistan

Isis admits to

bomb attack

on wedding

that killed 63

I N T E R N AT I O N A L

AUGUST 19 2019 Section:World Time: 18/8/2019 - 17: 59 User: david.owen Page Name: WORLD2 USA, Part,Page,Edition: USA, 3, 1

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