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Foreign ministers favor early withdrawal of weapons with caliber under 100 mm in Donbass

"We heard the head of the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) who confirmed that that draft agreement was 90-percent ready" Sergey Lavrov said

BERLIN, September 13. /TASS/. A draft agreement on the withdrawal of weapons with caliber under 100 mm in Donbass is 90-percent ready, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday following meeting of the foreign ministers of the "Normandy Four" (Russia, Ukraine, France, Germany).

"Right now, the draft agreement on withdrawal of weapons with caliber under 100 mm is being discussed within the framework of the Contact Group’s subgroup on defense issues, which is working in Minsk," Lavrov said. "We heard the head of the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) who confirmed that that draft agreement was 90-percent ready. Some details need to be agreed."

"We spoke in favor of coordinating and signing at an early date the document on all the details concerning the withdrawal of weapons with caliber under 100 mm within the framework of the relevant working group on defense issues in Minsk," he said. "This provides for verification, close monitoring by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission."

"We hope that the remaining issues will be agreed during the next meeting of the defense subgroup, which will be held on September 15 and 16 in Minsk," Lavrov added.

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