BERLIN, March 13. /TASS/. The Normandy Four countries (Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France) have no shared vision on the need to expand the format through the United States, a source from the German government stated on Monday ahead of a visit by Chancellor Angela Merkel to Washington for talks with US President Donald Trump.

"In all the conversations on expansion, there has been no consensus of opinion that it really needs to be expanded," the source said, noting that "presently, it would be the wrong time for this."

"The Normandy format has proved efficient," the source said, noting the importance of Berlin’s establishing cooperation with Washington on Ukraine. "It is important that we work side by side with the Americans, as this used to be with the previous administration," the government source said.

He said Germany-US cooperation on the settlement in Ukraine will be discussed in Washington on Tuesday. The official Berlin believes that the new US administration will continue the policy of former President Barack Obama on the Ukrainian issue, the source added.

The so-called "Normandy format" was established in 2015 when Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko discussed the crisis in Ukraine on the sidelines of the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, France.