Lavrov: Kerry fully backs Minsk accords on Ukraine
PARIS. Oct 14 (Interfax) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry agrees with the need to implement the Minsk agreements on Ukraine, says Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"Mr. Kerry and all the other of our friends and partners from foreign countries should not try to invent something new but make sure that those whom they can influence fully and honestly implement the existing agreements. This is what our position consists in, and I can say Mr. Kerry considers it justified," Lavrov said in summing up outcomes of his negotiations with Kerry and with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in Paris on Tuesday.
Kerry "has fully supported the Minsk agreements and called for their conscientious implementation by all parties," Lavrov said.
"It is critical now not to erode the process taking place and not to get sidetracked into some formats proposed artificially but to seek to make sure that all parties involved in the Minsk process fully implement the agreements between Kyiv and Luhansk and Donetsk," he said.
"This concerns the ceasefire, the separation of forces, the withdrawal of heavy weapons, and, what counts most, the beginning of a comprehensive political dialogue," he said.
This dialogue "was promised by the Ukrainian authorities back in April this year, when the Russian, U.S., Ukrainian, and EU foreign policy chiefs met in Geneva," he said.
The participants in that meeting "declared that it was necessary to immediately start a political dialogue involving all regions and all political forces of Ukraine," he said.
