Brussels, 04/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - A few days ahead of the G8 summit, which will be held on 7 and 8 July (see EUROPE 8982, p.14), France, Germany and Russia reiterated their willingness to pursue "constructive cooperation" in order to resolve the international problems of the day, and promised that the European crisis would not affect relations between Moscow in the EU. At the end of an informal summit at the seaside resort of Svetlogorsk, 70 km from Kaliningrad, the Russian President Vladimir Putin told the press that relations between France, Russia and Germany are " a good example of constructive cooperation". The French President Jacques Chirac said that it was "indispensable for the European Union and Russia to have very strong relationships based on fraternity and solidarity" in order to find solutions to international problems. The EU's current constitutional and budgetary crises " cannot have consequences" on relations with Russia "for one simple reason: these relations are both natural and necessary", agreed Mr Chirac and the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder.
Jacques Chirac expressed the willingness of all three countries to reach agreement at the G8 on "a slight increase in resources for development aid, whether this be in the form of State aid or innovative funding". On the climate change chapter, which is turning out to be the main source of friction at the G8 Summit, the French president said that the Eight "were moving towards" an agreement after "difficult discussions". On Iran, Mr Schröder and Mr Chirac (speaking on behalf of the European troika) and supported by Mr Putin, stressed the need to negotiate a solution with Teheran which would "unambiguously" avoid the risk of nuclear proliferation. On the reform of the Security Council of the United Nations, Vladimir Putin said that he "supported" Germany's candidacy for a seat as a permanent member. Mr Chirac repeated his view that the German candidacy was an entirely natural development.