The next meeting of advisers to the leaders of the “Normandy” format in Ukraine will be held in March, meetings at the level of foreign ministers or country leaders are not expected before that, said German Cabinet spokesman Steffen Hebeshtreit.
“The next meeting in this composition has been tentatively agreed on for March, before that, negotiations of the trilateral contact group should take place,” he said at a briefing on Friday.
Speaking about the talks held on Thursday, he noted that an important point was that “all participants in the Normandy format want to adhere to the Minsk agreements.” He added that the negotiations were difficult, he described the rapprochement of positions as “cautious”.
“It’s good that the parties continue negotiations, that what is the basis, namely the Minsk agreements, is accepted by all parties,” Hebeshtreit added.
When asked if the only meeting of advisers scheduled for March meant that there would be no meetings of foreign ministers and leaders before that, Hebestrait told a journalist: “For now, I will say that you are right here.”
“But, as you know, the development of events can be dynamic, we will let you know if there is anything to report, but right now there are no (meeting plans) yet,” he added.
The next round of negotiations at the level of political advisers continued on Thursday in Berlin for almost nine hours, the previous meeting was held in Paris on January 26. Following their results, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, said that the parties could not come to a joint document, but confirmed the need to implement the Minsk agreements on the settlement in Donbass.