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In Le Havre, where he was mayor, Edouard Philippe played tour guides for Dmitry Medvedev. LOIC VENANCE / POOL / AFP

French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe received this Monday, June 24 his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in Le Havre. One way to relaunch the dialogue with Moscow after several years of disputes and mutual sanctions.

With our special correspondent in Le Havre, Julien Chavanne

The thermometer only showed about 20 degrees in the rain, but Édouard Philippe and Dmitri Medvedev still dropped the jacket. If we are still far from the heat wave, the two men wanted to show that the temperature was rising between Paris and Moscow.

Together, they visited some of the emblematic places of Le Havre, the city where the prime minister was mayor: the Nemeyer library, the harbor master's office, the museum of modern art. Édouard Philippe played the tour guide to get closer to his counterpart. The main objective was to open a new forum for discussion between the two countries. " The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron considered that the quality of dialogue would win if we could create new spaces of dialogue, " said the head of the French government.

Delighted to have welcomed @MedvedevRussiaE to Le Havre for this visit! It was the first time we met in our respective positions. pic.twitter.com/Or13wjXZjh

Edouard Philippe (@EPhilippePM) June 24, 2019

A new format, because the existing channels are frozen by the sanctions of Westerners. Never seen even during the cold war, regrets Dmitry Medvedev: " It is not for nothing that we say today that the situation in the world is sometimes worse than during the cold war. Why ? Because there is no communication. When there is no communication, there is no trust and no confidence impossible to solve our problems. "

Syria, Iran, Ukraine, French imprisoned in Russia: difficult subjects were tackled, but without achieving progress. The main thing was to preserve contact. Dmitry Medvedev also invited Edward Philippe to visit St. Petersburg.

I would like to invite Prime Minister Edouard Philippe @EPhilippePM to come back to Russia. With today's talks being held in Le Havre, then the next talks should take place in St Petersburg

Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) June 24, 2019