On Thursday, France and Germany accused Russia of violating diplomatic protocol after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made public correspondence between foreign ministers about a possible future meeting of the “Quartet of Normandy” at the ministerial level, .
Ukraine , Ukraingate , 19 , November , 2021 , international News
“We consider this approach to be contrary to diplomatic rules and customs,” Anne-Claire Legendre, a spokeswoman for the French Foreign Ministry, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
According to the statement, the official representative of the French Foreign Ministry, quoted by DW, in France “took note of the decision of Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov.”
Germany and France have been working for several months to continue negotiations and implement a concrete peace agenda based on the Minsk agreements, providing several concrete proposals for a ministerial meeting in the “Norman format”, as agreed between German Chancellor Merkel, French President Macron and Russian President Putin. in October. Russia refused to take part in such a meeting, “the statement said.
Acting German Chancellor Angela Merkel also commented on the publication. In her opinion, it is not surprising that such correspondence is made public.
At the same time, she expressed regret at the absence of a meeting of foreign ministers in the “Norman format”.
“I even wanted to meet at the level of heads of government, but unfortunately that did not happen. And I am very sorry about that, “Merkel said.
At the same time, the German Foreign Ministry considered Lavrov’s corresponding step a “violation of diplomatic practice.”
What Lavrov says
The Russian minister also decided the day before to comment on his actions, which caused a lot of noise in the diplomatic community. On November 18, answering questions about the reasons for the publication of diplomatic correspondence, the Russian Foreign Minister stated that he had been “received.”
Quote
“We are all human. You can say-got … But we, of course, do not fall into any despair. It’s just that it’s not very decent for my colleagues to behave in this way when they have been arrogant, not very correct, not every day during the last two weeks, when their initiative to gather at the level of foreign ministers (Norman format) was discussed. very ethical statements: “everyone is ready, Putin instructed, and Lavrov does not want to.” That’s about it, ”Lavrov said.
Ukraine’s reaction
Reacting to the actions of the Russian counterpart, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba noted that Russia “completes the Norman format” by its actions, demonstrates that it is not interested in its development, and undermines the remnants of self-confidence.
According to the diplomat, Ukraine, Germany and France will work to involve Russia in the negotiation process and diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict.
Context
Earlier this week, the Russian Foreign Ministry allegedly “due to the distortion of Russia’s role in the internal Ukrainian settlement” (as the Russian aggression against Ukraine is called in Moscow – ed.) And the approach to the meeting in the “Norman format” decided to publish diplomatic correspondence between Russian and German foreign ministers. and France.
Source: Ukrgate
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