BRUSSELS, April 28. /TASS/. The European Union will continue to support the implementation of the Minsk Agreements within the Normandy format, EU Foreign Affairs Spokesman Peter Stano told TASS, commenting on Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s proposal to create another format for talks on Donbass, which would involve "powerful players" and would operate alongside the Normandy Four group.
"The implementation of the Minsk agreements in the framework of the Normandy format has unanimous EU support. We will continue supporting the parties' endeavors in this regard," Stano pointed out.
The Normandy talks on resolving the conflict in Donbass are not exclusive of any other diplomatic effort, Stano said. "The Normandy meetings are not exclusive of any other diplomatic effort aimed at solving the conflict. They complement, inter alia, the discussions in the trilateral Contact Group under the auspices of the OSCE."
Stano emphasized that "the situation requires continued and intense diplomatic efforts." "We will remain in close contact with our partners, as it has been the case since 2014, notably in the G7 format," he added.
The Normandy Quartet was established in June 2014. During the celebrations of the 70th D-Day anniversary in the French region of Normandy, the leaders of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine for the first time discussed ways to resolve the Donbass conflict. Since then, there have been five meetings involving the four countries’ leaders. The last Normandy Four summit took place in Paris on December 9, 2019.