KIEV, October 11 (RIA Novosti) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is anticipating hard but successful talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the Asia–Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Milan, Ukrainian information agency UNIAN said Saturday.
"In six days in Milan I will meet the Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin together with the leaders of European countries. I do not expect the negotiations to be easy," Poroshenko said in Kharkiv on Saturday.
At the same time Poroshenko expressed his belief that "[we] will be able to fulfill a significant portion of the positions of the peace plan, the Minsk memorandum and the Minsk protocol."
On September 5, the trilateral Contact Group consisting of representatives from Russia, Ukraine, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s republics and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) met in Minsk to discuss the peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian conflict. The meeting resulted in a ceasefire agreement between the Ukrainian government and the self-proclaimed people’s republics.
The Minsk protocol signed by the Contact group the same day envisages a ceasefire and suggests, among other things, that Ukraine should adopt a law on granting special status to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and ensuring early elections of the heads of the self-proclaimed republics.
The last meeting between the presidents took place in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, on August 26 at talks that also involved heads of Russia’s Customs Union partner nations Belarus and Kazakhstan, along with EU officials.
ASEM is an informal trans-regional platform for dialogue and cooperation between the two regions. The 10th ASEM summit will take place in Milan on October 16-17.
