due to the war in Ukraine, the plans of Franco-Russian influence in the Caucasus were slowed down

It is known that Paris is interested in close cooperation with Moscow in the Caucasus. However, plans to join forces to influence the state of affairs in the region were suspended by Russia’s war against Ukraine. The French establishment fears reputational losses due to reckless foreign policy. However, the French will definitely not abandon such plans, because against the background of the growing influence of Germany in the EU and Turkey in the Mediterranean region, Paris is not ready to lose ground.

Telegraf writes about this with reference to the Azerbaijani telegram channel AzFront.

The concept of the association was most fully presented by geopolitics consultant Pierre-Emmanuel Toman on the expert and analytical website Le Journal TransAlpin. The idea of ​​such a regional union was put forward as a new tool for France to contain Turkey in the Caucasus and the Eastern Mediterranean. Russia has been announced as the main potential partner.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, Moscow and Paris have been co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, which has dragged out the process of the Azerbaijani-Armenian settlement for 30 years.

“Russia was initially interested in freezing the conflict – this is the only way it can maintain influence in the South Caucasus and military bases in Armenia,” - noted in May of this year the Romanian version of Newsweek.

At the same time, Paris acted as an intensifier of the Russian and Iranian game in the South Caucasus.

France, like Russia, does not benefit from the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. It serves as a pretext for them to maintain and increase their influence in the South Caucasus. This is expressed not only in the political support of Yerevan: the Russian Federation has bases in Armenia and Azerbaijani Karabakh, and France opens a mission of the Ministry of Defense in Yerevan and begins supplying weapons.

Back in November 2022, the Israeli edition of Hamodia stated the formation “a bizarre alliance between France, Iran and Russia joining forces against Azerbaijan and Israel in the Caucasus.”

Macron carefully demonstrates solidarity with other Western countries by participating in the provision of military assistance to Ukraine. But Paris, unlike Kyiv, Warsaw, Vilnius and London, is not only not interested in the collapse of the Russian Federation, but also aims at the prospect of partnership with Moscow.

France is interested not in the victory of Ukraine, but in the end of the war, even if on Putin’s terms. This would allow Paris to renew its economic partnership with Moscow and return to the idea of ​​an alliance to jointly contain Turkey, in particular in the Caucasus.