PARIS, July 23. /TASS/. The Russian and French foreign and defense ministers will hold a 2+2 meeting in Paris, the date will be announced later, a senior diplomatic source in the French capital told TASS Wednesday evening.
"The ministers will meet in Paris as part of the French-Russian Security Cooperation Council that brings together heads of foreign policy and defense agencies of France and Russia," TASS was told. According to the source," the meeting’s date will be revealed separately."
The senior source then recalled, "Political directors of the French foreign ministry and the armed forced ministry held consultations with their Russian counterparts in Paris on July 16 ahead of this meeting." TASS was also told that the talks focused on the issues of strategic stability and regional crises.
Earlier, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko expressed hope in an open interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman that a 2+2 ministerial meeting would take place soon.
The 2+2 format of consultations between foreign and defense ministers of Russian and France was created in 2002 at the initiative of the two presidents, Vladimir Putin and Jacques Chirac. The first such meeting took place in November 2002 in Paris. Subsequently, the meetings took place in the national capitals annually on a rotary basis.
Moscow hosted the last such round of consultations on September 9, 2019. The sides then discussed security issues, particularly the issue of intermediate- and short-range missiles, fighting terrorism in Syria and Ukrainian conflict settlement.