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Normandy Four contacts likely to resume soon — Lavrov

The Russian top diplomat said the Package of Measures negotiated in the Belarusian capital of Minsk has been an absolutely uncontested document which enables the crisis to be settled

© Mikhail Tereshenko/TASS

MOSCOW, December 2. /TASS/. Aides to the leaders of the Normandy Four group (comprising Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany) could resume contacts in the near future, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a televised interview with the Belarussian channel STV.

The Package of Measures negotiated in the Belarusian capital of Minsk in February 2015 after the 17-hour talks "without any sleep or rest," was unanimously approved by the United Nations Security Council and "up to now, it has been an absolutely uncontested document which enables the crisis to be settled," Lavrov said.

"The other thing is that not everything it envisions has been implemented," the Russian top diplomat said.

"However, I think that we will continue efforts, including in Minsk, which provides its venues for the Contact Group’s negotiations that will soon resume among aides to the heads of the Normandy Four states," Lavrov said.

"When President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko had suggested Minsk be chosen as a venue for talks of the ‘Normandy Four’ created in June 2014, we immediately supported the idea. I do not think it is reasonable to speak here whether it was agreed or not," Lavrov answered to a question if the proposal had been agreed with Russia.

"That was a sincere proposal backed at once by us, Ukraine, Germany and France," he added.

Normandy Four format

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 held talks to find a solution to the conflict in southeast Ukraine.

In February 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko held 17-hour-long talks in Minsk, approving the Package of Measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements - the basis for peace in Donbass.

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