Not 'obsessed' to meet Putin, says Macron

France President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that he was not obsessed to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at an EU-Russia summit. His comments came after eastern European leaders shot down a Franco-German proposal to hold such a summit. The east European nations of the EU opined that such a summit would send a wrong message to Moscow.

The meeting with Putin was proposed by Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Both the leaders have chosen to take a less confrontational stance with Russia in recent years.

"There was no consensus for a quick summit. It's no tragedy in my view," Macron said at a news conference in Brussels. "The most important thing is to remain united. Divisions weaken us."

"The aberration today is that we're the toughest power vis-a-vis Russia, despite the fact they're our neighbour," he said, adding that fellow EU leaders had not expressed the same objections when U.S. President Joe Biden met Putin.

EU summits with Russia were discontinued after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014. The West had then imposed sanctions on Russia.

Macron also said tensions with Turkey have eased over the last few weeks but European countries will remain cautious.

He added that leaders also agreed at this week's summit on the need to accelerate work towards a possible European banking union, which would mean setting up a controversial common deposit insurance scheme that would sharply reduce the possibility of a major banking crisis in the 19 countries sharing the euro.

(With inputs from agencies)