From Ben Hall and Quentin Peel, the Financial Times:  France and Germany are hoping to do their own pressing of “the reset button” on the European Union’s uneasy relationship with Russia at a two-day trilateral summit that starts on Monday.

The meeting between Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, and Dmitry Medvedev, president of Russia, is intended to discuss security relations and the global economy in advance of next month’s summits of the G20 group of leading economies, the Nato alliance and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. …

Berlin is conscious that the meeting is regarded with some suspicion by its EU and Nato partners. These include Italy, which is upset at not being invited, and some east European states that fear France and Germany are looking to improve relations with Russia without taking account of their own security concerns. …

Mr Sarkozy has advocated an “economic security union” between the EU and Russia, although he has yet to spell out what this might involve. The French president is also keen to promote co-operation in counter-terrorism efforts. …

In Moscow, Mr Medvedev’s senior foreign policy adviser said the Russian president would be raising the subject of closer ties with Nato, including Russia’s goal of a formal new joint European security framework.

On that issue there is clearly less enthusiasm in both Berlin and Paris. A senior German official said it was “more important to have closer EU-Russia co-operation”, while a French official said the Russian idea for a new security framework was “no longer really the subject”.  (photo: Ria Novosti/Pool)

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