RUSSIA: MOSCOW: FRENCH PRESIDENT JACQUES CHIRAC VISIT

(19 May 1997) French/Nat

French President Jacques Chirac on Sunday paid tribute to his Russian counterpart for reaching an agreement with NATO.

Chirac stopped off in Moscow as he returned home from China to meet Boris Yeltsin.

During their brief talks, the two leaders discussed the accord which the Russian president is to sign in Paris on 27 May.

On his way back from China, the French president stopped off in Moscow for a meeting with his Russian counterpart Boris Yeltsin.

They discussed the agreement which the Russian president reached on the future of relationships between NATO and Russia, which he's due to sign in Paris later this month.

After the talks at Novo-Ogarevo, one of Yeltsin's private residences outside Moscow, Chirac told waiting reporters the NATO-Russia agreement was historic.

SOUNDBITE: (French)
"The agreement between Russia and NATO will both erase Yalta and confirm the peace on our continent for the future."
SUPER CAPTION: Jacques Chirac, French President

Russia has been deeply frustrated by NATO's planned expansion into Eastern Europe.

But many Russians are unhappy with the agreement Yeltsin reached with the Western alliance.

The agreement gives Russia a voice in NATO, but no real power, and communists and nationalists in particular are opposed to signing it.

SOUNDBITE: (French)
"Frankly speaking I think that it's a great success for Russia and this success is explained because of President Yeltsin's firm will. It was he himself who wants Russia to have a great presence in a new peace organisation."
SUPER CAPTION: Jacques Chirac, French President

Chirac had stopped en route to Paris from Shanghai, where he completed the first visit by a French president to China in 14 years.

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