11:44 03.10.2015

Minsk agreements must be fulfilled in 2015, but their implementation could be continued next year too - Hollande, following talks in Quartet

2 min read
Minsk agreements must be fulfilled in 2015, but their implementation could be continued next year too - Hollande, following talks in Quartet

French President Francois Hollande announced on behalf of the Normandy Four that the Minsk Agreements must be fully implemented within the established deadlines, i.e. before the end of this year.

"We have been assessing the results of implementation of the Minsk Agreements, trying to discuss their prospects during the whole meeting today. We must stay within the deadlines set forth in the agreements, implementing all of their provisions," Hollande said following the summit in the "Normandy format".

However, he admitted that there is a possibility that the work on implementing the Minsk Agreements could continue in the next year.

"It is possible that we will be working beyond the deadlines stipulated for these processes by the Minsk Agreements, that is, after December 31 [2015]," he said.

The French leader recalled that implementation of several provisions of the Minsk agreements concerning, specifically, the ceasefire in Donbas, the heavy weapons withdrawal, the exchange of prisoners, the formation of working groups, had taken more time that it was initially planned.

"Now that we come to the election stage, we need to have enough time make these elections fully matching the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) criteria and this may also take longer than planned before," Hollande said.

"We believe that holding these elections within the set deadlines may leave no chance to observe all mandatory procedures," Hollande added.

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