Netanyahu and Putin Meet In Paris, Commit To Further Cooperation
Paris (TPS) – Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Paris earlier on Monday, during the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference. Both leaders expressed praise for existing areas of cooperation between Israel and Russia as well as for the continued growth of Russian-Israel relations.
“The events of recent days prove the importance of our coordination, our de-confliction mechanisms, and our attempts to cooperate with each other to prevent unnecessary accidents and tragedies,” said Netanyahu.
“I believe that we have been successful.”
This past week, Turkish-Russian coordination in Syria proved to be a failure when Turkey fired on a Russian plane that supposedly entered Turkish airspace in a brief timespan of approximately 17 seconds.
President Putin acknowledged the growing tensions in the region since Turkey targeted the Russian plane last week.
“There are many dramatic developments, including dramatic ones that have been happening globally,” Putin said.
“But let me start with congratulations on the coming Chanukah holiday. This is a good and bright holiday that symbolizes the victory of light over darkness and I really hope that international affairs will have it this way as well,” wished Putin.
Netanyahu assured Putin of Israel’s continued intention to fully cooperate with Russia to prevent such incidents. “I hope that Israel and Russia can see eye to eye on all the strategic matters, but I want to assure you that we believe that we it is within our power to have very good coordination on the ground and in the air, so that we do not create the kind of problems that we have been experiencing,” Netanyahu stressed.
“I am very satisfied of the fact that our militaries have been very careful to coordinate with one another and will continue to do so,” Netanyahu added. “I think that this is an indication of the openness and success of the relationship between Israel and Russia.”
President Putin expressed gratification for the continued cooperation and relationship between Israel and Russia.
“We are satisfied with the progress in the bilateral relations between us,” Putin said to Netanyahu. “The mechanism from your initiative and the ties between our militaries to prevent incidents due to the dramatic developments in the region, have been efficient and there are developments between us in other spheres as well.”