‘Normandy Format’ Meeting on Ukraine May Take Place on Wednesday in Berlin

KIEV, January 20 (Sputnik) — The next meeting on Ukrainian reconciliation in the "Normandy format," with the participation of the Russian, Ukrainian, French and German foreign ministers, may take place on January 21 in Berlin, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said Tuesday.

“On January 13, a meeting of foreign ministers in a ‘Normandy format’ took place. We have agreed to continue these discussions with the purpose of implementing a full package of the Minsk agreements. Two hours ago we have discussed with the German foreign minister the ways to continue this difficult discussion, and we have reached a preliminary agreement to continue the conversation tomorrow in Berlin. We have the same demands – the implementation of the Minsk agreements,” Klimkin told journalists.

According to Reuters, the German Foreign Ministry subsequently confirmed the meeting.

The Ukrainian foreign minister also said that during the Wednesday meeting in Berlin, he would propose holding a new round of Contact Group talks on Ukrainian reconciliation.

According to Klimkin, another Normandy format meeting, scheduled to take place at the end of January in Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana, should help in the “real de-escalation” of the Ukrainian conflict. “We will define the time frames for such a meeting,” should this be achieved, the minister added.

The Normandy format, like the Minsk, Geneva and Weimar formats, are negotiation configurations used by international mediators to discuss the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict. It dates back to June 2014, when the leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine met to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the allied landing in Normandy, France. After the initial meeting, the countries took part in several rounds of high-level and ministerial-level talks regarding the situation in eastern Ukraine.