News from Berlin

Steinmeier Starts New Peace Initiative

July 02nd, 2014
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News from Berlin – With a new diplomatic initiative, Germany wants to get the ball rolling on peace negotiations in Ukraine. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) invited his colleagues from Russia, Ukraine and France to a meeting in Berlin with the aim of preventing further escalation of the crisis at hand.

According to information from the Süddeutsche Zeitung the Ministers’ meeting is primarily about negotiating trusting measures. The meeting is supposed to take place at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin. Among those invited are the Russian Foreign Minister Sergej Lawror, the new Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pawel Klimkin and the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. The conclusion of the meeting is likely to be a signed agreement on which various participants had already informally agreed to. According to Steinmeier the international agreement to resolving the conflict had only merely collapsed. ‘We were really close to an agreement, which then did not hold to take the decisive steps forward’, he said.

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergej Lawrow welcomed Steinmeier’s initiative, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow informed. Both have called for an end to the bloody crisis. Russia has showed willingness to take part in talks with the OSZE countries to reach a new cease-fire.

News from Berlin – Berlin Global