By Hajer M'tiri
PARIS (AA) - French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday received his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Versailles Palace for the inauguration of an exhibition marking the 300 years of Franco-Russian relations.
It is their first face-to-face talks, nearly two weeks after Macron was elected president.
The visit is seen as an opportunity to rebuild strained bilateral ties. France has been backing moderate opposition in Syria, while Russia is a great supporter Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Putin, 64, cancelled his last planned visit to Paris in October after the then French president, Francois Hollande, said he would see him only for talks on Syria and that Russia's bombing of Aleppo could amount to war crimes.
Also, France has been one of the key EU countries to push for sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.
Macron, 39, vowed during the G7 summit in Italy that he would hold 'tough dialogue' with his Russian counterpart.
"It is essential to talk to Russia because there are a number of international issues that will not be resolved without a tough dialogue with them," Macron told reporters.
During the presidential election campaign, Macron's campaign was the target of massive cyber-hacks.
His team pointed fingers to Russian hackers and even refused accreditation to the Russian state-funded Sputnik and RT news outlets, which it said were spreading Russian propaganda and fake news.
And just two days before the decisive May 7 election runoff, Macron’s campaign said it was victim of an anonymous massive hack as thousands of emails and electronic documents, mixed with false ones, were released online.
Analysts said the source could have come from a group tied to Russian military intelligence. However, Moscow declined the allegations.
Russia's ambassador to Paris, Alexander Orlov said in French Radio Europe 1 on Monday that he expected this first meeting to be full of "smiles" and marking the beginning of "a very good and long relationship".
Putin and Macron will hold a joint news conference and later tour an exhibition, marking the 300th anniversary of Russian Tsar Peter the Great’s trip to France in 1717.