"We live on a common European continent, we would very much like this continent to become a space for cooperation, not coexistence and in no way a competition. We must jointly promote our security interests, we talked with Mr. Lavrov about it. To do it, we need to understand each other," he said.
Le Drian went on by stressing that French are "neither seeking to isolate Russia from Europe, nor to weaken Russia's economic and financial situation. We are going to work specifically, pragmatically over the settlement of those problems that hurt both the interests of Russia and the interests of France."
France is among Russia’s leading partners in Europe and worldwide regardless of the fact that France joined the EU restrictive anti-Russia measures over Ukraine in 2014.
The two countries maintain intensive cooperation in the political, economic, trade and cultural spheres.
