Macron hosts Putin as Merkel insists Europe must assert itself

Bloomberg

French President Emmanuel Macron was expected to give Russia’s Vladimir Putin a tour of the royal palace at Versailles near Paris on Monday, following up his debut at the Group of Seven meeting last week.
On their first encounter, the two leaders have a range of tricky topics to discuss, including what Macron called Russia’s “invasion” of Ukraine and its role in Syria. The French president has promised a “demanding dialogue” at the talks, a day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a call for Europe to stand up for itself.
“Europe is now present on the international scene. Europe is solid, and that’s a message that the president will pass on,” Benjamin Griveaux, Macron spokesman during the election campaign, said on France 2 television on Monday. “Putin was maybe looking for a different results in these elections.” Griveaux said Macron would show Europe is united in its approach to Russia.
After 16 days in power, the 39-year-old president is still laying the foundations for his dealings with world leaders. After a series of bilateral meetings at the NATO gathering in Brussels on Thursday and the G-7 summit which wrapped up in Sicily on Saturday, Macron has said he is ready for the power games that leaders such as Putin and US President Donald Trump engage in, while drawing strength from his rapport with Merkel.
France’s youngest ever elected leader prepared an especially firm handshake for Trump and was expected to meet Putin amid the gold and marble of Versailles and then show him round an exhibition commemorating Russian Czar Peter the Great, who visited France in 1717.