Moscow welcomes Hollande’s intention to create broad coalition against IS — Kremlin

Moscow welcomes the French president’s intention to create a broad coalition against the Islamic State that is in line with the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin put forward at the United Nations General Assembly, Russian president’s aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists.

He said that coordination of counter-terrorism efforts would be in the focus of Francois Hollande’s meeting with Vladimir Putin on November 26. “Our country welcomes the French president’s statement on intention to create a broad coalition to fight IS,” Ushakov went on to say.

“France’s anti-terrorist priorities are consonant with an initiative which our president launched at the 70th session of the UN General Assembly in which he called for working out a UN Security Council resolution on coordination of efforts of all the forces that counteract IS and other terrorist organizations,” Putin’s aide said.
Moscow regards Hollande’s visit to Washington as forestalling his visit to Moscow.

“It comes in continuation of his declared efforts to form a broad anti-terrorism coalition, which we actively support. They reflect the essence of our initiatives (at the UN General Assembly),” Ushakov said.

“It is clear that the dialogue with the French president is particularly important in the wake of the Russian plane’s detonation over Egypt and the tragic terror attacks in Paris,” Ushakov went on to say.

“It is necessary to unite all efforts, real efforts, so to speak. Naturally, it’s going to be interesting to meet Hollande after he preliminarily presents his idea to his U.S. colleagues at a meeting with (U.S. President Barack) Obama,” Putin’s aide said.

He recalled that Putin had visited the National Defense Centre shortly after his telephone conversation with Hollande on November 17 where he ordered the establishment of close cooperation with the French military and treat them as allies given the close location of the Russian and French naval groups with each other off the Syrian coast.

“The chiefs of the General Staffs of Russia and France had a telephone conversation on November 19 in continuation of (Putin-Hollande) telephone conversation and the presidential instructions,” Ushakov said.

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