Nice, France - The global financial crisis and concerns over Russian and US plans to site missiles in Europe looked set to top the agenda on Friday as Russian and European Union leaders met in the French resort of Nice. With a meeting of the world's greatest powers in Washington on the financial crisis just 24 hours away, the summit's host, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and his guest, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, are expected to spend much of their time discussing a joint approach to solving the world's financial problems.
"Our stance on how the (world) financial architecture should look in the future corresponds. ... I believe that tomorrow night in Washington we'll speak the same language. It's obvious," Medvedev told EU and Russian businessmen on Thursday.
Both presidents are set to board flights for Washington immediately after their meeting in Nice, with Sarkozy travelling in his capacity as current holder of the EU's rotating presidency.
Formally, the main outcome of the EU-Russia summit is likely to be a confirmation that the two sides are set to re-open talks on a strategic treaty on issues ranging from trade to culture.
The EU froze the talks on September 1 in protest at Russia's August invasion of Georgia. EU foreign ministers on Monday agreed to re-open the talks despite Lithuanian objections.
Observers say that the two presidents could also discuss the related questions of Russian proposals for a "new security architecture" in Europe, and a Russian threat to site missiles on the border of EU members Poland and Lithuania.
Medvedev made the threat in his state-of-the-nation address on November 5, but subsequently toned down his rhetoric, insisting that Russia would only go ahead with the deployment if plans by the US to site a missile-defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic went ahead.
According to EU sources, Sarkozy is set to raise the bloc's concerns over the whole question of Russia's foreign policy doctrine of "spheres of influence" in Eastern Europe.
However, analysts say the presidents are likely to try and steer clear of a clash over the most contentious issue on the table, Russia's August invasion of Georgia.
While EU foreign ministers on Monday insisted that the bloc was not back to "business as usual" with Russia, neither president has anything to gain from an open row just before the Washington talks.
"It wouldn't help to have a public argument now," Hans-Henning Schroeder, head of Russia studies at Berlin's SWP institute for international politics and security, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
