13:21 22.08.2016

Foreign ministers not due to meet in 'Normandy format' yet - Klimkin

2 min read
Foreign ministers not due to meet in 'Normandy format' yet - Klimkin

There are no plans to hold a meeting of foreign ministers in the 'Normandy format' (Ukraine, Germany, France and Russia) in the near future, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin told reporters in Kyiv on Monday.

"Formally, at the political level - no. Discussions are in progress about the logic and sequence of the roadmap [for implementation of the Minsk agreements] because it is very hard to move on without combining in one document, firstly, a sequence of actions and, secondly, guarantees of their fulfillment," Klimkin said, replying to a question as to whether the ministers might meet in the 'Normandy format' soon.

He said a possible meeting of foreign ministers in the 'Normandy format' had been suggested earlier. "One of the proposed dates, and let me underline that this is just preliminary, was [the date of] an informal meeting of the OSCE foreign ministers in Potsdam [an informal meeting of the OSCE foreign ministers planned to be held in Potsdam on September 1 to discuss security challenges]. It now seems that [Russian Foreign Minister] Lavrov would not participate in that meeting. So, everything is being delayed," Klimkin said.

The keynote issue is the agreements to be presented at the meeting of the 'Normandy Four' ministers, he said. "There is no clear idea as to how the Minsk agreements' roadmap should be structured, but we are working on this," he said.

The roadmap, which is being worked on by the sides, "is not a new document," he said. "I am often asked whether this is a Minsk III or a third version of Minsk. This is not a third version of Minsk," the Ukrainian foreign minister said.

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