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TechnoratiBusiness and military on agenda for Medvedev visit to Paris
Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev is in Paris on Monday to push forward his country’s relationship with France. A number of rich Russian businessmen join Medvedev on his two-day visit. He will hold talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, officials and business leaders.
The agenda will be dominated by “economic and military cooperation” and “questions relating to Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organisation,” says Inga Warterlot of RFI’s Russian service.
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“And of course main international issues such as Iran nuclear programme, Afghanistan,” she adds.
Medvedev’s visit is also timed to coincide with the start of a year-long Franco-Russian cultural festival.
But business deals are likely to dominate. Russia is currently awaiting a decision on the possible sale of a French warship to the Russian navy, while Gazprom chief Alexei Miller accompanies Medvedev to sign a deal with French energy group GDF-Suez for the Nord Stream gas pipeline project.
As well as trade, discussions are likely to touch on global security, as Sarkozy tries to bring Russia onside for sanctions against Iran’s nuclear programme.
Warterlot says that Iran is “always used as an issue in negotiations with other countries”, though she is unsure whether Medvedev would ever vote for new sanctions against Iran.
France is Russia’s most important partner in Europe after Germany. However many former Soviet countries fear that improving relations are a reward for Russia, following the 2008 war between Moscow and Georgia.
“The French ambassador in Moscow said in an interview that he thinks that what brought France and Russia together, it was the Georgia crisis in August 2008,” says Warterlot.
"The positions of Russia and France became closer and the two countries since then really developed very good relationship.”
In the last Russian visit to Paris, France agreed to sell the building housing the headquarters of the country’s weather forecasting service to Moscow.
On Tuesday Medvedev is expected to attend a commemorative ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe, before he and Sarkozy unveil an exhibition of Russian art at the Louvre museum.
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