Valdai Club

Pascal Boniface, Director of the Paris-based Insitute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS) talks about French-Russian relations, as well as the relevance of France in the modern world. Boniface noted that while Europe as a topic was all but left out of the Valdai Club discussions, it remains strategically important, as it is responsible for most of the world's social spending and continues to attract other countries.

He also discussed the main issues of Europe, including political divisions, declining interest in the European Parliament, the refugee crisis and upcoming elections. Discussing Russian-French relations, Boniface noted that issues over Ukraine and Syria still remain, although there are multiple things that the sides can do to resolve them.