PARIS, May 25, 2018 (News Wires) - French President Emmanuel Macron hailed "direct and frank" talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin after the pair discussed Syria, Ukraine and the Iran nuclear deal outside Saint Petersburg Thursday. In a press conference following the leaders' wide-ranging first meeting in Russia, Putin also said he regretted US President Donald Trump calling off his plans for a summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un. "We had counted on that a significant step towards a de-escalation on the Korean peninsula would be taken and a start made on denuclearisation," Putin said. Trump announced Thursday that he would not go ahead with the meeting with Kim set for June 12 in Singapore, and would instead pursue Washington's campaign of "maximum pressure" through sanctions on Pyongyang. Meanwhile, Macron said he wanted the "non-proliferation process to continue" and hoped Trump's decision was just a blip. Trump's earlier withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement had provided another rare point of convergence for Moscow and Western capitals, with both Macron and Putin reaffirming their commitment to the deal. The ongoing crises in eastern Ukraine and Syria, where Russia and France have intervened on opposing sides of the conflict, were less comfortable topics for the two leaders. Nevertheless, the French president said he "respected the strengthened role Russia has taken on in the region and in the world, in particular the Middle East". "I expect that Russia will respect also our interests, our sovereignty and that of our European partners," the French president added. Before the press conference, ministers from France and Russia celebrated a raft of commercial deals between the two countries. The most significant of these was a deal that will see the French energy group Total increase its role in liquefied natural gas projects in the Arctic with Russian firm Novatek to the tune of $2.5 billion.
