ZURICH, January 20. /TASS/. US Secretary of State John Kerry and his assistant Victoria Nuland on Wednesday confirmed that the US work regarding Ukraine will be aimed at support for the Contact Group and the Normandy format, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday after a meeting with Kerry.
Lavrov said "the positive assessment by our American partners of the Normandy Four’s activity was confirmed."
"Our interlocutors — John Kerry, and he was accompanied, among others, by Victoria Nuland, who is in charge of the European sector of the US foreign policy in the Department of State, — our American partners confirmed that their work on the Ukrainian direction will be aimed to help reach agreements in the Contact Group, Normandy format, and not replace these useful mechanisms," he said.
The United States has agreed that the Minsk-2 package of measures designed to implement the September 2014 agreements for the Ukraine settlement should be implemented consistently and in full measure, Sergey Lavrov went on to say.
"Such contacts [the consultations between Vladislav Surkov and Victoria Nuland] are in great demand today. The channel was created in June under an agreement between the Russian and US presidents. The United States agrees that it is central to implement the Minsk-2 package of measures in full measure and with consistency in which the agreements have been set forth," Lavrov said.
According to the Russian Foreign Minister, the essence of the Minsk Agreements is not subject to interpretation, they need to be implemented and not rewritten.
"There are always several variants of how reforms should be implemented," Lavrov said. "The compromise should be sought, but on how to implement the Minsk Agreements rather than how to rewrite them."
He said the American counterparts share that position.