Will the Normandy Four meet before Merkel leaves? The Kremlin gave the answer

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is already in the process of leaving politics. She is also unlikely to have time to attend the meeting of the leaders of the states of the “Normandy format”, since this meeting is unlikely before the Chancellor’s powers are surrendered.

This was stated by the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, UNIAN reports.

When asked by a journalist if there is a chance that the Normandy summit will not be held before Merkel’s departure, he replied: “Yes, there is such a risk, of course.”

“Everyone would like to hold it as early as possible. In general, it is absolutely clear what needs to be done for this. The best thing is, probably, our counterpart in Kiev, but, unfortunately, they do not want to do this.”– said Peskov.

He notes that he is interested in a meeting not only in Kiev, but also other participants in the format, but at the same time he again insists that the meeting should be well worked out and prepared.

“It (the summit) should be prepared, especially in the conditions of an acute deficit of any results in the implementation of the previously reached agreements. The preparation of this summit and the revision of the current state of affairs in this area are being carried out by the foreign ministries of the four countries and political advisers, but so far we cannot boast of special results. As we said, there is no point in holding a summit for the sake of a summit. “– said the speaker of the Kremlin.

As we have already written, the head of the President’s Office, Andriy Yermak, announced the timeline for a new “Normandy meeting”. Kiev expects that the negotiations will also take place with the participation of Merkel.

“Normandy format”

• The Normandy format is a type of meetings in a quadripartite format between the top officials of Ukraine, Germany, France and Russia, where issues of Russian armed aggression against Ukraine are discussed.
• The name of the format comes from the meeting place of the heads of these four states, which first took place on June 6, 2014 in the town of Benouville, Normandy (France), as part of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of Operation Overlord and the opening of a second front in World War II.
• The next meeting in the same format was held on October 16-17 in Milan (Italy).
• The third meeting took place on February 11-12, 2015 in Minsk (Belarus).
• In December 2019, the Paris summit was held with the participation of the leaders of the Normandy, at which President Vladimir Zelensky was for the first time.

We will remind, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he would like to see the United States in the “Normandy format”, but suggested that the Americans can help in resolving the conflict in a parallel format.

Earlier, Russia called the condition for the United States to join the “Normandy format”. Moscow is nervous that America will be on the side of Ukraine and will put pressure on Moscow.