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French foreign minister sows doubts over Putin Paris visit

Jean-Marc Ayrault said his priority was to end 'massacres' in Aleppo rather than focus on whether Russian president would visit on October 19th.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

France's foreign minister says his priority is to put an end to the "massacres" in Aleppo rather than focusing on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would visit Paris later this month, reports Reuters.

Russian news agencies quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying ahead of his meeting with Jean-Marc Ayrault on Thursday that Putin would visit Paris on Oct. 19 to discuss the situation in Syria and Ukraine with his French counterpart François Hollande.

However, while Lavrov later said they had discussed this during their meeting, Ayrault sought to sow some doubt on the visit.

When asked by reporters to confirm Putin's visit to the French capital, Ayrault said:

"The urgency today is the cessation of hostilities and to end the massacres in Aleppo," he told reporters after a news conference with Lavrov.

Read more of this report from Reuters.