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Belarus ready to host Normandy Quartet meeting in Minsk

According to German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier, Paris and Berlin are gearing up for a meeting of the Normandy Four foreign ministers to be held in Minsk on November 29

MINSK, November 23 /TASS/. Minsk is ready to host a meeting of the Normandy Quartet’s top diplomats, Belarusian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Dmitry Mironchik told TASS on Wednesday.

"If all parties agree to this decision, Belarus will be ready to create all the necessary conditions for an effective meeting," the diplomat said.

Earlier on Wednesday, German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier said in his address to the Bundestag (parliament) that Paris and Berlin were gearing up for a meeting of the Normandy Four foreign ministers to be held in Minsk on November 29.

The Contact Group for the Donbass settlement and its thematic groups meet regularly in Minsk.

The so-called Normandy format of negotiations for the Ukraine settlement (the Normandy Four) came into existence in 2014 during the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the allied troops’ Normandy landing on June 6, 1944. It was the first time that the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany got together to discuss the settlement for southeast Ukraine.