French President Emmanuel Macron is set to welcome his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to the Palace of Versailles on Monday for a first meeting full of significance. Reports Deutsche Welle.
It is timed to coincide with the opening of an exhibition commemorating the 300th anniversary of Peter the Great’s visit to France, which marked the start of Franco-Russian ties. For Putin, it will be the first one-on-one meeting with a French leader in five years.
Amid strained relations between the two countries, Macron has the opportunity to meet Putin without hosting him officially at the Elysee Palace, which would involve “all kinds of protocolar things,” Manuel Lafont Rapnouil, head of the Paris office of the European council on foreign relations (ECFR), told DW.