Tuesday, 13 January 2015

Lavrov stressed importance of launching comprehensive constitutional process in Ukraine



Russian Foreign Minister said the ministers would discuss the possible dates for a summit meeting in Astana, Kazakhsrtan, at their next meeting

BERLIN, January 13. /TASS/. There is a growing understanding that it will be scarcely possible to resolve concrete issues in Ukraine unless a comprehensive constitutional process embracing all the regions of the country is launched, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday upon the end of a conference of Foreign Ministers of the 'Normandy format' countries.

He indicated that the constitutional reform process in Ukraine should lay down a framework, which would make it possible to place point-by-point implementation of the Minsk accords on peace settlement in eastern Ukraine into an appropriate context.

Lavrov also said the ministers would discuss the possible dates for a summit meeting in Astana, Kazakhsrtan, at their next meeting.

"Ministers of the 'Normandy format' countries will get together to discuss the prospects for and possible dates of a summit in Astana after a meeting of the Contact Group (for settling the civil conflict in eastern Ukraine) that we hope will meet in the coming few days," he said.

Participants in the conference in Berlin stressed that the political process in Ukraine could be successful only in the conditions of a direct dialogue between the Kiev government and representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, Lavrov said.

"They should feel full-scale inclusion as equal partners in this political process," he said.

Source: ITAR-TASS 13-01-2015