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Russian defense minister calls for joint work with France to avoid military incidents

Sergey Shoigu expressed hope that the sides would be able to speak openly, adopt corresponding decisions and set tasks to specialists, including at Russia’s and France’s defense ministries

PARIS, November 12. /TASS/. Russia and France should jointly analyze security problems in the interests of the de-escalation of the situation in Europe and avoiding military incidents, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Friday.

"It is important to jointly analyze security problems in order to agree steps toward deescalating the situation in Europe and preventing incidents during military activities," he said at a plenary meeting of the Russian-French Security Cooperation Council in the 2+2 format, involving the two countries’ foreign and defense ministers.

He said he hoped for a sincere conversation with his French counterpart that would yield the appropriate solutions. "We hope we will be able to speak openly, adopt corresponding decisions and set tasks to specialists, including at Russia’s and France’s defense ministries," he said.

"Today, the situation in the world is quite difficult," Shoigu noted. "That is why we need to exchange views on issues of international security, discuss regional problems.".

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