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Lukashenko says suggested Macron call Putin to set up 'man-to-man' talk in Minsk

The French president said he would not rule out a meeting with the Russian leader

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko Alexander Kazakov/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko

© Alexander Kazakov/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

ASTANA, May 29. /TASS/. Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko told reporters that during a phone conversation with Emmanuel Macron on May 24, he joked that the French president should call Russian leader Vladimir Putin and arrange direct talks in Minsk, and Macron seemed open to the idea.

"Well, maybe you’re not crazy about Moscow – you could come to Minsk, along with Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] and I would meet you there," Lukashenko told Macron during the phone call, as he told reporters.

"I was merely joking. He replied, 'I wouldn’t rule out such a meeting'. I said, 'So we need to call Putin. Come over, sit down, and have a man-to-man conversation,'" the Belarusian president added.

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