Franco-Russian Cooperation Council for Security Issues – Statements made by M. Bernard Kouchner, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, and M. Hervé Morin, Minister of Defence, during their joint press conference with Mr Sergey Lavrov, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Mr Anatoly Serdyukov, Russian Minister of Defence (excerpts)

Paris, 11 March 2008

FRANCE/RUSSIA/EU

M. KOUCHNER – (…) The Franco-Russian Cooperation Council for Security Issues, which once a year brings together the two countries’ foreign and defence ministers, is a totally original structure.

No one else meets for so long or discusses very varied subjects at such length. (…)

We talked about cooperation at the UN and UN and Security Council reform.

We talked about the security architecture in Europe, starting with relations between the European Union and Russia, looking ahead to the French presidency starting on 1 July, and also, more generally, about the work of the Slovenian presidency taking place at the moment. (…)

EUROPEAN DEFENCE

M. MORIN – In the context of the development of Defence Europe, clearly, once we decide to give Europe more assets to maintain its own security, particularly by enabling it to deploy autonomous capabilities, it will be in a position to conduct significant operations, complementary to those which NATO could conduct.

Of course, this means we have to adopt a European approach going beyond the single issue of building the European Union, in the strict sense of the term, to embrace that of the European continent as a whole.

In this respect, developing the partnership and joint discussions between Russia and the European Union is a must. (…)./.