Macron adviser secretly traveled to Moscow and held a series of meetings, Reuters reports

At the beginning of the week, Emmanuel Bonne, the chief diplomatic adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron, made an unpublicized visit to Moscow. France is stepping up efforts to prevent European countries from being sidelined in shaping a new security architecture after the war in Ukraine.

Reuters reports this.

“In Moscow, Bonne held confidential talks with Yuri Ushakov, an aide to the Russian president, trying to secure a role for Paris and the European Union as a whole in a negotiating process that is now effectively monopolized by other players,” the report says.

The visit took place against the backdrop of ongoing consultations in Abu Dhabi, where the question of ending the war is being discussed by representatives of the United States, Ukraine, and Russia without the official participation of EU representatives.

“Paris is voicing a principled position: any agreements on a ceasefire or on future security guarantees on the continent cannot be made exclusively in a bilateral format between Washington and Moscow. France stresses that because the consequences of the war have a direct impact on Europe’s stability, the participation of the region’s states in negotiations is critically necessary,” the report notes.

At the same time, President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that preparations are underway for possible contacts at the highest level.

“While speaking with farmers, he noted that discussions about the prospects for his dialogue with Vladimir Putin are currently continuing at the technical level. The French side seeks to emphasize that the future of European security is inseparably linked to the outcome of a settlement of the conflict in Ukraine, and therefore Europe’s voice should be decisive at the final stages of the diplomatic process,” he said.

Europe is not abandoning the possibility of direct contacts with Russia, since it considers it necessary to defend its interests in any negotiating process.

“Paris does not rule out the principled possibility of such a dialogue, but only on the condition of coordination with Ukraine and European partners. France has never ruled out the principled possibility of dialogue with Russia, with full transparency with Ukraine and its European partners and, of course, on the condition that it will be useful,” explained France’s foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot.

In January, President Emmanuel Macron did not rule out making contact with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in the coming weeks.

Answering a question from a France 2 journalist about a possible conversation with Putin, the French leader said that arrangements are currently being made to establish contact in the coming weeks.