Russian President Vladimir Putin described Monday's talks with French leader Emmanuel Macron in the Kremlin as useful, substantive and business-like, and said that some of his ideas could form a basis for further joint steps.
The French President travelled to Moscow for talks amid an East-West standoff over a Russian military buildup near Ukraine and a Kremlin campaign for security "guarantees" from Washington that would include a halt to NATO expansion.
In a joint news conference after the talks, Putin said that a number of Macron's ideas concerning security were realistic and that the two would talk again once Macron had travelled to Kyiv to meet Ukraine's leadership.
"A number of his ideas, proposals, which are probably still too early to talk about, I think it is quite possible to make the basis of our further joint steps," he said.
"We have agreed that after his trip to the Ukrainian capital we will call each other again and exchange views on this matter."
Russia has built up more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine, stirring fears that Moscow may be planning to invade. Russia has dismissed those fears.
Russia launched a barrage of drones in an overnight attack on Ukraine on Friday, killing at least four people and injuring 35 in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, regional officials said.
Myanmar's junta leader attended a regional summit in Bangkok on Friday, a week after a massive earthquake devastated parts of the impoverished war-torn country, killing more than 3,100, and spurring an appeal for help by the United Nations chief.
Hackers targeting Australia's major pension funds in a series of coordinated attacks have stolen savings from some members at the biggest fund and compromised more than 20,000 accounts in A$4.2 trillion (AED 10.3 trillion) retirement savings sector.
South Korea's Constitutional Court on Friday decided to oust President Yoon Suk Yeol, upholding parliament's impeachment motion over his short-lived imposition of martial law last year that sparked the country's worst political crisis in decades.