During a meeting with Russia's Minister for Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov on Saturday 18 February, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini reiterated Russia's responsibility in "the full implementation of the Minsk agreements", according to a press release from the European External Action Service (EEAS).
At their meeting on the sidelines of the Security Conference in Munich, Mogherini and Lavrov discussed "at length the situation in the eastern part" of Ukraine. Mogherini reiterated the European Union's support for the full implementation of the Minsk agreements, and re-confirmed the EU's engagement in supporting and accompanying the work of the Normandy format and of the OSCE.
During a conference in Munich, Mogherini said that the Normandy format was facing a number of challenges. "We are ready to help, to support, to accompany, provided that this is for the sake of the substance and not for the sake of the discussion on the format", she said. "We are working on some ideas. We are discussing these ideas both with the French and the Germans and mainly with the Ukrainian government and with our Russian friends to see how we can do more to make sure that the Minsk agreements are implemented", she stated.
Mogherini and Lavrov also discussed Syria, after the meeting in Astana on the ceasefire, with a view to a resumption of the inter-Syrian talks in Geneva on 23 February, and to the upcoming conference in Brussels on the future of Syria and the region. They also talked about the Iranian nuclear programme agreement, the Middle East, Libya and Afghanistan.
Mogherini and Lavrov agreed to stay in close contact on these issues in the coming weeks, the EEAS stated. (Original version in French Camille-Cerise Gessant)