France Warns Russia on Ukraine, Belarus in Ministerial Meeting

France warned Russia of "serious consequences" regarding its alleged involvement in Ukraine and Belarus during a high-level meeting held Friday.

Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs and Florence Parly, Minister for the Armed Forces, received their Russian counterparts, Ministers Sergei Lavrov and Sergueï Choïgou in Paris on November 12 within the framework of the Council cooperation on security issues.

This meeting is part of a firm dialogue demanding that France continue with Russia in order to increase the predictability and stability of our relations, French MoD said in a release.

This meeting made it possible to discuss the political and military dimensions of several regional and international crises. In particular, the French ministers expressed the unacceptable nature of the deployment of Wagner's mercenaries in the Sahelo-Saharan strip. They reiterated their messages of firmness regarding the risks of regional destabilization and damage to the interests of France and its partners engaged in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel. They underlined their vigilance on the respect of the timetable of the transition by the Malian authorities.

The two ministers expressed their concerns about the deteriorating security situation in Ukraine and clearly warned of the serious consequences of any further possible damage to the territorial integrity of Ukraine. They called on Moscow to reinvest in the Normandy format negotiations by agreeing to hold an N4 ministerial soon, in accordance with President Putin's commitment. They also reminded Russia of its commitments, made within the framework of the OSCE, to transparency on military movements and activities and to the full implementation of the confidence and security measures provided for in this framework.

Regarding the situation in Belarus, the two French ministers condemned the irresponsible and unacceptable behavior of the Belarusian authorities regarding the instrumentalization of migratory flows targeting several countries of the European Union. They encouraged Russia to mobilize its close ties with Belarus to get it ended.

The two ministers also discussed the joint efforts of France and Russia under the co-presidency of the Minsk Group to achieve a lasting peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as the close cooperation between the E3s and Russia in favor of the rapid resumption of negotiations with Iran so that the latter returns as quickly as possible to compliance with the JCPoA.

Faced with the challenges to international peace and security posed by the crisis in Afghanistan, the two ministers called for the preservation of the unity of the permanent members of the UN Security Council in order to bring the Taliban to act in tangible, sustainable and verifiable way to demonstrate their willingness to comply with the expectations of the international community.

The two ministers shared their appreciations on regional security in the Middle East, calling for working on the political conditions for the return of refugees to Syria and for the renewal of the resolution on cross-border humanitarian aid beyond January 2022. They have underlined the complementary efforts of the Amman group and the Quartet in the Middle East peace process.

France also addressed issues of strategic stability, expressing their concern over the disappearance of arms control regimes in Europe. They welcomed the resumption of the U.S.-Russian dialogue on strategic stability, noting that these discussions should fully take into account the security interests of Europeans. They stressed the importance of maintaining channels of discussion between the European Union and Russia, as well as between the latter and NATO.

The ministers also expressed their growing concerns over the situation of human rights and public freedoms in Russia, in particular with regard to the situation of Navalny. They finally stressed the importance of resolving the MH17 file.