French CEOs say determined to keep doing business in Russia
MOSCOW. May 26 (Interfax) - The president of the Franco-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Emmanuel Quidet, said on Tuesday that, of the French companies doing business in Russia, not a single one has been forced by Western anti-Russian sanctions to pull out of the country.
Quidet was speaking during a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the chief executives of French companies doing business in Russia.
"Advocating the earliest possible termination of the sanctions standoff, the chief executives of the French companies that are represented in Russia reaffirmed their readiness for close cooperation with Russia, including under promising projects such as bringing in high technologies and putting companies on innovational tracks," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Lavrov made a speech at the meeting in which he "made a detailed analysis of the current international situation and of prospects for the normalization of Russia's relations with the European Union in the context of ongoing attempts to put pressure on the independent foreign policy course of the Russian state," the ministry said.
He "set out our vision of the causes of, and solutions to, the political crisis that has split up Ukraine, emphasizing that there is no alternative to strict compliance by all the parties with the Minsk agreements," it said.