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U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke on Wednesday about the latter's recent meetings in Russia and Ukraine, the White House said in a statement. It was the second talk between Biden and Macron in a week.
"They also talked about ongoing diplomatic and deterrence efforts undertaken in close coordination with our allies and partners in response to Russia's continued military build-up on Ukraine's borders," according to the White House.
Macron met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, and the two sides signed a string of bilateral agreements in defense, transport, infrastructure, aviation and other sectors following the meeting.
During his hours-long talks in the Kremlin with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, Macron said he believes there is still an opportunity to find a peaceful path for Europe while Putin reiterated Russia's opposition to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)'s eastward expansion.
Since November, Kyiv and some Western countries have accused Russia of assembling heavy troops near the Ukrainian border with a possible intention of "invasion."
Russia denied the accusation, saying that Russia has the right to mobilize troops within its borders to defend its territory, as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's activities constitute a threat to Russia's border security.
The advisors to the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France are set to meet under the Normandy format on February 10 in Berlin.
The mission of the format is to control the implementation of the Minsk agreements, said Rodion Miroshnik, Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) representative in the contact group political subgroup on Tuesday.
He emphasized that currently, the major task of the Normandy format was "to force Kyiv to comply with the Minsk agreements with no twists and distortions.
The Normandy format was established in June 2014. That year, during the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landing in Normandy, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany discussed the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine's eastern region of Donbas for the first time.
Since then, five highest-level meetings have taken place; the last one took place on December 9, 2019, in Paris.
(CGTN)
