The plan for a meeting Wednesday in the Belarusian capital emerged from a phone call between German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, described the call as “intensive.”
The aim is to draw up a package of measures that breathes new life into a much-violated September peace plan. Seibert and the French government said preparations for the summit will take place Monday in Berlin, without elaborating.
There will also be a meeting in Minsk by Wednesday of the signatories to last September’s accord, including Russia, Ukraine and representatives of separatists in eastern Ukraine, they said.
Before the summit Merkel, who met Friday night in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, is scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama in Washington Monday on a previously scheduled trip.
At an international security conference in Munich, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. and its European allies are “united in our diplomacy” on Ukraine. He said the U.S. supports efforts by France and Germany to produce a new plan to end the conflict that is now raging in east Ukraine.
Kerry denied that there is a U.S.-Europe rift over how to respond to the crisis and how to deal with Russia’s role in it despite a debate over whether to arm the government in Kiev.
“There is no division, there is no split,” Kerry said. “I keep hearing people trying to create one. We are united, we are working closely together.”
His comments came amid reports of a deep trans-Atlantic rift over the Obama administration’s consideration of providing defensive weaponry to Kiev. Germany and France oppose such a move, saying it could lead to an escalation and that they do not believe the conflict can be resolved militarily. Russia, which is accused of supporting separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, has said the introduction of U.S.-supplied weaponry will have grave consequences.......................http://www.france24.com/en/20150208-four-way-summit-ukraine-be-held-minsk/
8/2/15
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EIL - Putin: Gipfel am Mittwoch in Minsk in Aussicht genommen...
ReplyDeleteEin Gipfeltreffen im „Normandie-Format“ zur Regelung des Ukraine-Konflikts kann laut Russlands Präsident Wladimir Putin am Mittwoch in Minsk stattfinden, wenn bis dahin eine Reihe von Positionen abgestimmt werden.
„Soeben habe ich ein Telefongespräch mit den Kollegen aus Kiew, Berlin und Paris im sogenannten Normandie-Format beendet“, sagte Putin am Sonntag bei einem Treffen mit dem weißrussischen Präsidenten Alexander Lukaschenko in Sotschi. „Wir haben vereinbart, uns darum zu bemühen, ein Gipfel-Treffen im gleichen Format in Minsk abzuhalten. Wir nehmen den Mittwoch in Aussicht, wenn es bis dahin gelingt, eine Reihe von Positionen abzustimmen, die wir in letzter Zeit intensiv diskutiert haben.“ .......http://de.sputniknews.com/politik/20150208/301010041.html#ixzz3RB5KbmEW
8/2/15