French President Francois Hollande will hold talks on Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of his diplomatic marathon to forge a broad coalition against the militant Islamic State (IS) group in the wake of the Paris attacks.
The French President met Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in Paris early Thursday and will later head to Moscow.
Hollande has been on a whirlwind tour seeking to build a coalition to crush IS in Iraq and Syria but has won few concrete pledges so far, and his campaign has been further complicated by a spat between Russia and Turkey over the shooting down of a Russian jet.
Renzi offered only vague support for “a coalition of greater and greater strength that is up to the task of Daesh’s destruction,” using another name for IS.
France invoked a clause requiring European Union (EU) member states to provide military assistance after the November 13 attacks in Paris, when 130 people lost their lives in a wave of killings by suicide bombers and gunmen, in an attack claimed by IS.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday pledged to stand beside France after talks with Hollande, saying she would act “swiftly” to see how her country can help in the fight against terrorism.
The French and German leaders each laid a pink rose among the tributes of flowers and candles in Place de la Republique, the Paris square that has become a rallying point since the bloodshed.
In Berlin, Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said Germany would send 650 soldiers to Mali to provide some relief to French forces fighting militants there.
