Deauville, France (AHN) – In an attempt to build a pan-European security partnership, the leaders of France and Germany are meeting with their Russian counterpart in the Normandy seaside resort of Deauville for a two-day summit.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that they jointly launched the drive to ‘anchor Russia to the West’ with the hope to convince the Russian leader to support NATO’s new security concept, which it is due to unveil next month at Lisbon summit.
The French and German leaders are also keen on persuading Russian President Dmitry Medvedev over NATO’s European missile defense plan, which the alliance and the U.S. said was aimed at securing Europe from Iranian and North Korean missile threats.
Despite repeated assurances, Moscow vehemently opposes the plan, claiming it can pose potential security threat to Russia and demands assurances that it will never be used to neutralize Russia’s long-range nuclear arsenal.
Sarkozy and Merkel told the European Union and Britain, which were not invited, that the summit would only be a “brainstorming session” but hinted that they might discuss security and economic partnership before the upcoming G20 summit of leading economies.
All three nations – Russia, France and Germany – strongly opposed U.S.’ invasion on Iraq. However, the relations between Russia and France deteriorated after the French government decided to return to NATO’s military wing. With Germany, the ties strained due to Russia’s decision to stop gas supplies to Europe because of its pricing dispute with Ukraine and its brief was with Georgia in 2008.
Tensions apparently eased between Russia and the West following an effort by U.S. President Barack Obama to reset relations with Moscow.
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