As it became known on November 6, the meeting of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, scheduled for November 11, will not take place. More precisely, there will be no “full meeting”.
Previously it was assumed that Putin and Trump will hold talks in Paris on the margins of events dedicated to the conclusion of an armistice in the First World War. The formal reason for canceling the meeting was the format. In any case, this was reported by representatives of the Kremlin and the White House.
Data leaked to the press that the French leader Emmanuel Macron asked to change their plans for the presidents of Russia and the United States. Allegedly, he feared that all the attention of the press and the international community would be riveted on the Russian-American summit, and this would negatively affect the coverage of the celebrations that Macron considers his personal project.
A humorous comparison of the President of the Fifth Republic with Louis XIV, who was called the "Sun King", appeared in the media and social networks. The monarch was very fond of the magnificent holidays and reacted with great irritation to everything that could hinder their conduct.
The meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump was agreed upon during a recent visit to Moscow of the national security assistant by US President John Bolton. As a matter of fact, the main purpose of the Bolton visit was the preparation of top-level talks.
It turns out that the "Sun King" had his own plans, and he told about them at the last moment? Well, it is possible. Formally, Macron is in his right - he is the host of an international event that is truly dedicated to celebrations, and not bilateral negotiations. Security measures are planned accordingly, protocol services are prepared, logistics is organized, etc. And no one has canceled the media component: if the cameras of the main world channels turn out to be in the wrong place, this can affect the image of the organizing country.
But if the French president really exercised his right as a host, then even if diplomatic etiquette was not violated, the polite was not respected. For distinguished guests, we must do everything possible and impossible.
But this is the case if Emmanuel Macron referred to the format of the event in Paris on his own initiative ... The expert community has received a version that the leader of the Fifth Republic was asked to do the same. Like, or the meeting was not properly prepared, or Bolton for a couple with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo convinced Trump to cancel it for other reasons.
There is also an assumption that the initiator of the cancellation of the talks between Putin and Trump was indeed Macron, but not at all because of the unwillingness to divert attention from the Parisian celebrations. He did not want to divert attention from himself and from his role as an intermediary between East and West, and also (in view of the speedy departure from the political Olympus Angela Merkel) of the European leader.
In the sight of television cameras surrounded by other heads of state should always be exactly Macron, not Putin and not Trump. The cancellation of the bilateral meeting and the permanent stay in the focus of the President of the Fifth Republic are intended to demonstrate that no agreement can be reached between the great powers without the participation of Europe.
All this, of course, only assumptions. True or not, it does not matter. The fact that the pre-negotiated summit was scheduled, and then canceled five days before its scheduled date, can hardly be good news.
Paraphrasing a well-known aphorism, we can say that the salvation of Russian-American relations is the work of Russia and America themselves. And this relationship really needs to be saved. Of course, I even hypothetically do not want to talk about the possibility of a military conflict involving the two countries, but in the world a lot depends on Moscow and Washington, on their agreements and the quality of their interaction.
After the inauguration of Donald Trump, both sides did not rush to bilateral contacts. Meanwhile, the “quick” meeting of the two leaders was quite possible. Resistance from the European and other US allies was still small — they only politely advised Trump to “be careful” with the Russian president. And the domestic political opposition in Washington has not yet recovered from its deafening defeat.
The sight was taken on the meeting "on the fields." And if the first of them - in Hamburg in July 2017, at the G20 summit - was relatively successful, then the next one, in Vietnamese Da Nang, at the APEC forum in November 2017, failed.
I had to talk "on my feet", and after all important steps for the Middle East settlement were to be discussed.
The Helsinki summit was an undoubted success, but then there was a long pause, which again ends with a “meeting on foot”.
It is clear that Macron and other European leaders would like both Putin and Trump to heed their advice before deciding anything among themselves. Many Middle Eastern countries and countries of the Asia-Pacific region, and in general all important players, are burning with the same desire.
Not that the Kremlin and the White House should not pay attention to their interests at all. But to indulge them in everything is not worth it. They will not solve major international problems. They are not even very afraid of conflicts between Russia and the United States, hoping to hide behind the broad back of one of the powers, "if that." And so they continue to burden Russian-American relations with their advice and demands.
Even if Emmanuel Macron didn’t ask him to cancel anything at all, a very bad signal was given: a third country could upset the plans for the Russia-US summit.
It would be better if the meeting between Putin and Trump was not reported at all. There is a preparation, it is necessary to let the experts work - or what else do diplomats say in such cases? But not the "Parisian unformat."
The leaders of the two countries have to leave the “fields”, build new interaction formats depending only on them. Even in the worst periods of the Cold War, Moscow and Washington succeeded.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.