Despite scheduling snafus, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin somehow found the time to speak with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Paris at the Elysee Palace on Sunday, according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who was quoted by Interfax news agency.
Both men were in Paris together with other world leaders to attend the centennial celebrations of the World War I Armistice Day.
“The conversation with President Putin was good and businesslike,” Netanyahu told reporters, according to Reuters. “I would even describe it as very important,” he said, adding that he also spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump after the ceremony.
It was Netanyahu’s first meeting with Putin since Syria’s military shot down a Russian surveillance plane last September, killing 15 crew members, during an Israeli air strike targeting an Iranian military site near Latakia.
The Israelis were attacking a suspected Iranian arms shipment to Syria at the time; but the incident caused a major diplomatic rift between the IDF and the Russian Defense Ministry, which blamed Israeli for the death of the Russian crew members.