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Normandy Four agree to continue cooperation — Kremlin

Normandy Four comprising Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine have agreed to continue cooperation within the group

MOSCOW, June 7. /TASS/. Normandy Four comprising Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine have agreed to continue cooperation within the group, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday.

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"Participants of this (Normandy) format due to the changes, so to speak, in the French field, have agreed that their cooperation within the (Normandy) Four would be continued," he told reporters when asked if the Normandy Four group had plans to enlarge due to the United States' accession.

Ushakov said that the date for a phone talk between the Normandy Four leaders had not been set yet.

"The time for this telephone conversation (of the Normandy Four leaders) has not been set yet," he said, adding that he knew nothing about US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s steps in this context.

An agreement has been reached to hold the Normandy Four leaders’ phone talks over the report of the OSCE mission in Ukraine on the situation in Donbass.

"Against this background, the first telephone conversation with participation of Mr. Macron (French President Emmanuel Macron) was planned to take place," Ushakov said.

The first meeting in the so-called Normandy Four format was held in France, on June 6, 2014, during celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the landing of allied troops in Normandy, when the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany for the first time discussed the settlement of the conflict in southeast Ukraine. Since then, four summits have taken place as well as numerous ministerial meetings.

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