French president Francois Hollande will hold talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday, the Kremlin said.
The Kremlin gave no further details about the meeting, but Russia's Rossiya-24 state television service said they planned to discuss Ukraine and France's decision to suspend indefinitely the delivery of the first of two Mistral helicopter carriers to Moscow because of the crisis in Ukraine.
Russian news agencies said Mr Hollande would make the visit on his way back to France after a trip to Kazakhstan where he suggested that he, Mr Putin, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and German chancellor Angela Merkel should "start the process of reducing tension" together.
At a news conference in Kazakhstan capital Astana, Mr Hollande urged the Russian president to look to the future rather than the past to help ease tension over the Ukraine crisis.
More than 4,300 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine since the separatist rebellions erupted there in April, soon after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine.
Reuters