France's offer to send troops to Romania as part of wider NATO plans to bolster its ranks on the eastern flank was not meant to provoke Russia, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Thursday.

Speaking after meeting foreign ministers from Eastern Europe and the Baltic states in Bucharest, both Le Drian and his Romanian counterpart Bogdan Aurescu said France and NATO were doing everything they could to convince Russia to choose dialogue rather than escalation.