“Some of these ideas, these proposals (…) can form the basis for joint progress,” Putin said in a joint press conference with Macron, considering that, on the other hand, it is too early to go into these proposals publicly.
The French president announced from Moscow, on Monday, that he proposed to Putin “to build concrete security guarantees” for all countries concerned with the Ukraine crisis.
“President Putin assured me of his readiness to abide by this logic and his desire to preserve stability and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Macron said.
The Russian president described his talks with his French counterpart in the Kremlin as useful, objective and serious, and said that some of Macron’s ideas could form the basis for further joint steps.
The French leader traveled to Moscow for talks amid a standoff between East and West over a Russian military build-up near Ukraine and Russian demands for security “guarantees” from Washington that include a halt to NATO expansion.
Putin added that they would hold talks by phone after Macron held talks with the Ukrainian leadership.
For his part, Macron said that during his talks with the Russian President, he found points of convergence on the Ukraine crisis, but there are still differences.
Russia has massed more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine, raising fears that Moscow may be planning an invasion of its neighbour. Russia denied this.
