Europe

PARIS, August 20. /TASS/: French President Emmanuel Macron expressed confidence that Russia’s future is tied with Europe after the meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the fort of Bregancon.

"I am confident that Russia’s future is fully tied with Europe. We believe in Europe that stretches from Lisbon to Vladivostok," he wrote on his Twitter account on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/: Floods have been registered in 19 inhabited communities in Russia’s Far Eastern Jewish Autonomous Region, the regional department of the Russian Emergencies Ministry informed TASS.

Earlier reports said 16 settlements had been affected by floods.

MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/: OPEC+ countries participating in the Vienna Agreement on the reduction of oil production fulfilled the terms of the agreement by 159% in July 2019, a source told TASS after the meeting in absentia of the OPEC+ technical committee.

"The percentage of fulfillment of the agreement in July is 159%," the source said.

MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/: The test of a cruise missile with a range prohibited by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty conducted by the United States is regrettable, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told TASS on Tuesday.

"All that is regrettable. The United States has evidently set a course for mounting military tensions. We do not give in to provocations," he stressed.

The test of a cruise missile indicates that Washington had been developing such systems for a long time, according to Ryabkov.

PARIS, August 20. /TASS/: Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland fully supports the statements of Russian and French presidents, Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron, on the talks of the Normandy Quartet for discussing ways out of the crisis in the east of Ukraine, Spokesperson for the Secretary General Daniel Holtgen wrote on his Twitter account.

MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/: The military contingent of seven countries, including China, Pakistan and India, will take part in Russia’s Tsentr-2019 (Center-2019) strategic drills in September, press service of the Defense Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Military contingent of the People’s Republic of China, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of India, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan are engaged in the drills for exercising in coordinated operations," the statement said.

MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/: If escalated, the US-China trade wars may lead to economic slowdown and even recession in Russia, a research conducted by the HSE Centre for Business Tendency Studies (CBTS) ‘Business activity of Russian manufacturing in June-July 2019’ said.

PARIS (Reuters) - French supermarket retailer Casino (CASP.PA) is targeting a further 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) of asset sales, stepping up plans to cut debt and improve financial performance.

Casino has been struggling to improve its profits in a tough business climate in France, raising concerns over its ability to generate enough cash to pay off the debt of parent company Rallye (GENC.PA).

“The board of directors has validated the arbitration of assets whose disposal would be a source of value creation,” Casino said in a statement on Tuesday.

(Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is putting the National Health Service (NHS) off limits in any trade deal with the United States, the Sun newspaper reported.

"The Prime Minister has asked me to underline that measures affecting the NHS, including service provision and drug pricing, cannot under any circumstances form part of an agreement with the United States," a letter from Johnson's senior staff to Trade Secretary Liz Truss's office said, according to the report. bit.ly/2ZfwdG2

PARIS, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The presidents of France and Russia, Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin, agreed Monday on the "Normandy format" that groups senior representatives of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany to resolve the war in Eastern Ukraine and exchanged views on Syria when jointly meeting press before their talks in Bregancon in southern France.