Putin in Trieste, Macron and the Neutral Territory Question

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13 August 2025 – Macron and the neutral option

President Emmanuel Macron stated that any potential trilateral meeting between Donald Trump, Vladimir Vladimirovič Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky “should take place in Europe, in a neutral country accepted by all parties.”

The remark recalls specific precedents. For those familiar with the Adriatic region, the case of 26 November 2013 is notable, when Trieste hosted a high-level event between Italy and the Russian Federation.

26 November 2013 – Russian Security in Trieste

On that date, President Vladimir Putin met Prime Minister Enrico Letta not in Rome, but in Trieste. He was accompanied by eleven ministers and a large diplomatic delegation.

Security measures were unprecedented in the city:

  • municipal and prefecture staff forced to take two days of leave;

  • direct control of institutional buildings by Russian security services;

  • Russian snipers positioned on rooftops;

  • wide area around Piazza Unità isolated, with temporary disruption of telephone communications;

  • Russian supervision of the route between Ronchi airport and city center.

Present in Trieste were not only diplomats but Russian intelligence personnel (FSB or GRU), armed and operating on Italian territory. No questions were raised on authorization or entry procedures. Formally it was Italy, but for one day Trieste was Moscow.

26 November 2013 – Putin in Trieste: a word of freedom echoing in a city whose status remains unresolved.

Officially, the meeting served to sign 28 bilateral agreements. The choice of location carried strategic meaning.

Geopolitical Signal

At the time, Trieste hosted an active independence movement. Debate on the legal status of the Free Territory of Trieste and the Free Port under Annex VIII of the Peace Treaty was widespread.

In the second half of 2013, civic mobilization reached a level requiring direct attention from the Italian government. Extraordinary security measures were considered ahead of the demonstration of 15 September 2013.

The demonstration took place peacefully. Organizers and participants aimed at lawful protest. Security was also provided by the movement itself, in coordination with local authorities. Escalation was avoided.

Moscow’s choice to convene an intergovernmental summit in Trieste was read as a signal of attention to a long-term legal and strategic issue never formally resolved.

2015 – Subsequent Contacts

The contact did not end in 2013. In February and March 2015, the Russian Presidential Administration issued official receipts (protocol no. И-5717) confirming registration of communications on the Free Territory of Trieste and their transmission to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Below is the first registered receipt, here is a copy of the second official response.

Registered receipt of the Russian Presidential Administration, addressed to TRIEST ONG (2015)

 

Since 2012, information and documents on Trieste’s international status were regularly transmitted to Russian missions at the United Nations, especially in Vienna, traditionally a key node in East–West relations.

Relevance Today

Macron’s reference to a “neutral European country accepted by all parties” for a future international summit revives, in different context, the question of Trieste’s possible function as neutral ground in Europe.

Trieste’s legal status, established by international treaties still in force, and its strategic position as a multilateral free port at the junction of Latin, Slavic and Germanic spheres, make it a unique case combining formal neutrality with geopolitical significance.

– Alessandro Gombač –