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If Germany is ready for Normandy Four meeting in Munich, Russia is also ready - Lavrov

The first meeting in the so-called Normandy Four format was held in France, on June 6, 2014

MUNICH, February 17. /TASS/. A Normandy Four meeting in Munich has not been confirmed; if the German side is ready for it, Russia will follow suit, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

On Friday, the meeting could not take place, as Germany’s foreign minister had to return home to participate in a news conference after a German reporter had been liberated in Turkey, Lavrov said.

"Today, we have suggested several options, which could be convenient for us in the existing program," he continued. "We shall wait, nothing has been confirmed."

"Yesterday, with [Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavel] Klimkin we discussed everything, so now I really do not understand whether to get ready or not," Lavrov said. "If the Germans are ready, we are ready, too."

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

In February 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the then French President Francois Hollande and Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko held marathon 17-hour-long talks in Minsk, approving the Package of Measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements, the basis for peace in Donbass. Since then, numerous phone talks, summits and ministerial meetings have been held.

Munich is hosting 54th Security Conference on February 16-18. The forum is being attended by more than 500 politicians, businessmen, experts and human rights activists from around the world. Russia’s delegation to the conference is led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

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