President to attend meeting in Normandy format on January 15

Monday, December 29, 2014 - 16:54 (EET) Section: Latest news

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will visit Astana on January 15 to attend a meeting in the Normandy format.
The president said this at a press conference in Kyiv on Monday, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.
“My diplomatic year will begin in Astana on January 15, where it was agreed to hold a meeting in the Normandy format. The foreign ministers of the Normandy format countries were tasked with preparing the agenda and draft decisions for this summit,” he said.
According to Poroshenko, it was preliminarily agreed that the meeting will be attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande and the Ukrainian president.
He said that a return to the Geneva format of negotiations was also possible.
“We also foresee a return to the Geneva format with the participation of U.S. President Barack Obama, with whom I discussed this issue, and the new leadership of the European Union, Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk, who expressed their willingness to participate in Ukrainian peace talks. The level and intensity of this dialogue gives us good and optimistic positions.”
In addition, the president said that the meeting in Astana would create “no contradictions to the Minsk format and we remain committed to the Minsk agreements.”