MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The meeting of the Russian-French intergovernmental commission on economic and trade cooperation will take place before the end of 2016, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, Lavrov met with his French counterpart Jean Marc Ayrault in Moscow.
"We expect that, as our prime minsters have agreed, we will manage to hold the next meeting of the intergovernmental commission co-chaired by the heads of governments before the end of the year," Lavrov said following the meeting.
In the course of this meeting the sides would discuss ways to overcome the downward trend in turnover, which is not to the benefit of either of either Russia or France, the Russian minister said.
Relations between Russia and the European Union member states deteriorated in 2014, when Brussels joined Washington in blaming Moscow for fuelling the Ukrainian crisis, and imposed several rounds of sanctions as a punitive measure. The Russian authorities have refuted the allegations, warning that the Western sanctions are counterproductive.
On Tuesday, Ayrault said that France's relations with Russia remained positive despite the turbulence in the international arena.
