Strasbourg, 13/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - The foreign affairs ministers from France - Laurent Fabius, Germany - Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Russia - Sergei Lavrov, and Ukraine - Pavlo Klimkin agreed on Monday 12 January that work should be continued for a “successful” summit in Kazakhstan. “The summit in Astana is greatly awaited - but it must be prepared”, Steinmeier said at the end of a four-hour meeting.
A Normandy-format summit (France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine) with Presidents Vladimir Putin, Petro Poroshenko, François Hollande and Chancellor Angela Merkel had initially been planned for 15 January, but it seems that it may have been postponed. According to a French diplomatic source quoted by French news agency AFP, the principle of the Astana meeting still holds, just like the conditions set for holding it, but there is “not yet a date”.
In a joint press release, the ministers called on the contact group to meet “in the coming days” to make progress on the full implementation of the Minsk agreements, “including the creation of the relevant conditions for an effective ceasefire, an agreement on modalities for the delivery of humanitarian aid and the continuation of the release of detainees”. “This would contribute to pave the way to the preparation of a successful summit meeting in Astana”, the ministers added, stating that they had agreed that work must be continued on this.
“We have agreed to continue working on the conditions of a meeting at the highest level”, Steinmeier told journalists. In his view, the political leaders will meet again very soon. “And if there is progress in the coming days, then we are ready to meet again next week to continue the discussions that were begun today”, he added.
In their joint press release, the ministers also reaffirmed their “strong commitment to a swift and comprehensive peaceful solution to the current crisis; including a sustainable political process”. “The basis for conflict resolution is the Minsk agreements that have to be implemented by all sides in their entirety”, they added.
Review of sanctions against Russia depends on its progress.
During his visit to Moscow on Monday 12 January, Latvia's foreign affairs minister, Edgars Rinkevics - whose country currently holds the presidency of the EU Council of Ministers - stated that the key to future relations between the EU and Russia was in the hands of the Russian government, “in other words, the actions that it will take now in Ukraine, respect for the commitments in the Minsk agreement, and de-escalation of the conflict”, as proof of peace. “Recovering trust will take time, but it's not impossible”, said the Latvian presidency. In the presidency's view, Lavrov has highlighted that the Normandy format should help promote dialogue and execution of the Minsk agreements. Rinkevics stated that reviewing the EU's sanctions regime against Russia would depend on the actions that Russia was in the process of taking in Ukraine.
On Tuesday 13 January, European Council President Donald Tusk reiterated that the EU's approach to Russia would be discussed at the European Council in March, and “also in the context of the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga”, on 21-22 May. “We have in this room, different views about Russia and different interests with Russia. But no one here, I deeply believe, will ever accept that a state invades and occupies the territory of another state or kills its citizens”, he added. Tusk said that on the level of sanctions, the heads of state and government had agreed that the best thing to do for the moment was “to stay the course”, and he added that the next steps would be decided in March. He also stressed that only unity could bring results. (CG and JK)