20 Dec 2019 15:13

Federation Council members ready to contact German, French colleagues for establishing dialogue in Normandy format - Kosachyov

MOSCOW. Dec 20 (Interfax) - The launch of a parliamentary dialogue in the Normandy format will be extremely useful for settling the Ukrainian conflict, and Federation Council members are ready to contact their German and French colleagues in order to do so, Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Konstantin Kosachyov told the press on Friday.

"If we manage to organize this work in the multilateral format and to restore direct contact with our Ukrainian colleagues within the multilateral format's framework, I believe it will be an extremely useful continuation of the substantive settlement of the Ukrainian conflict," Kosachyov said.

"Naturally, the Federation Council is ready to work if the upper houses [of parliaments] of Germany and France exhibit such preparedness," he said.

He commented thus on the call of Ukraine's Opposition Platform - For Life leader Viktor Medvedchuk for starting inter-parliamentary dialogue in the Normandy format in order to promote a settlement in eastern Ukraine.

Federation Council members have not discussed the idea with German and French colleagues but are ready to do so in the near future, Kosachyov said.

He said the only side that could create impediments to the process is Ukraine. Therefore, it would be better if French and German parliamentarians approach Ukraine and circumvent the difficulties existing in Moscow-Kyiv relations, Kosachyov said.