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EU needs dialogue with Russia to resolve bilateral, international issues — Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron AP Photo/Francisco Seco, Pool
French President Emmanuel Macron
© AP Photo/Francisco Seco, Pool

BRUSSELS, October 1. /TASS/. The European Union needs an "exacting dialogue" with Russia to discuss bilateral issues and resolve international conflicts, French President Emmanuel Macron stated on Thursday after arriving at the EU summit.

"Relations with Russia are very important to us, Europeans. We need an exacting dialogue with Russia, it needs to be conducted on our bilateral relations as well as to resolve numerous crises in the zone of our immediate vicinity," he noted.

Among other subjects of the summit, he added, are the relations with Belarus and the discussion of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The French president added that recently he had intensive discussions on these subjects with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and US counterpart Donald Trump. He also stressed the importance of discussing the EU relations with Turkey in the context of tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean region where this country is conducting geological exploration of natural gas deposits in the area disputed by Cyprus and Greece. Due to the lack of clear support of Cyprus by the EU, Nicosia has been blocking the approval of sanctions against Belarusian government at the European Council.