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PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron is still due to visit Russia in May as it remained important to maintain “frank” talks with Moscow despite accusations of Russian involvement in a chemical weapon poisoning on UK territory, said French defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
“We must have a frank dialogue with Russia,” Le Drian told RTL radio on Thursday.
Macron is due to attend the Saint Petersbourg economic forum in May, even though diplomatic links between Russia and the West have hit a low in the wake of a chemicals weapon attack in March on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal.
Russian former spy Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a nerve toxin that had been left on the front door of their home in England, British counter-terrorism police said on Wednesday.
After the first known offensive use of a chemical weapon on European soil since World War Two, Britain blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the attempted assassination and the West has expelled around 130 Russian diplomats.
Russia has denied any involvement in the attack and has said it suspects the British secret services of using the Novichok nerve agent, which was developed by the Soviet military, to frame Russia and stoke anti-Russian hysteria.