MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th December, 2019) The leaders of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine, commonly referred to as the Normandy Four, will meet in Paris on Monday after a three-year hiatus to discuss the Donbas crisis settlement.
The history of the Normandy format has seen five summits and fourteen meetings at the level of foreign ministers.
The format itself was created on June 6, 2014, when the leaders of the four countries met on the sidelines of the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy. Then-French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested a separate bilateral meeting between Russia and Ukraine.
As a result, Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko held a 15-minute close-door meeting.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said back then that the two leaders had mostly talked about developments in eastern Ukraine. The heads of state called for an end to the hostilities between the Ukrainian government forces and the militias of the self-proclaimed republics.
The summit was followed by two Normandy-format ministerial meetings in Berlin in July and August, during which the sides reaffirmed their commitment to seek peace in Ukraine and reached a consensus on a humanitarian convoy to conflict-hit Donbas.
On October 17, 2014, the Normandy Four leaders met again on the margins of the Asia-Europe Meeting Summit in Italy's Milan. Putin, Merkel, Hollande and Poroshenko discussed ways of peaceful settlement in Donbas, as well as Russian gas supplies to Europe through Ukrainian territory. The Russian president positively described the results of the talks.
Putin and Poroshenko also held a bilateral.
On January 12, 2015, foreign ministers of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine met in Berlin, reaffirming their commitment to the Minsk peace accords. On January 21, they gathered again amid a spike in violence in Donbas after the Ukrainian armed forces resumed their special operation in the region. After the three-hour talks, the ministers called on the conflicting sides to cease hostilities and withdraw heavy weapons in accordance with the Minsk Memorandum of September 12, 2014.
From February 11-12, 2015, the Normandy Four leaders held marathon 16-hour talks in the Belarusian capital, which resulted in a package of measures adopted to alleviate the Ukraine crisis, commonly referred to as Minsk II.
The Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements was adopted by the Contact Group on Ukraine, while the leaders issued a declaration in support of the package.
The summit was followed by a number of Normandy-format ministerial meetings, during which the sides called for strengthening the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine and reaffirmed that the Minsk II accords had no alternative.
On October 2, 2015, the fourth Normandy summit was held at the Elysee Palace in Paris. Putin, Merkel, Hollande and Poroshenko first spoke in a narrow format for about an hour. Afterward, they continued in an expanded format. In total, the talks lasted 4 hours and 50 minutes.
The talks focused on the amnesty law and the timing of elections in eastern Ukraine. The leaders sought to determine the sequence of these events, which was not stipulated in Minsk II. The summit agreed on the withdrawal of heavy weapons in the east of Ukraine.
The leaders also agreed on the need for access of the OSCE SMM to the entire territory controlled by the Donbas militia.
Berlin then hosted a series of follow-up talks at the ministerial level.
On October 19, 2016, the Normandy Four leaders met in Berlin for their fifth meeting. Putin, Merkel, Hollande and Poroshenko confirmed that the implementation of the Minsk agreements was possible only in part of security provisions. As for the political and humanitarian provisions, which lie within the exclusive competence of Ukraine, no progress was achieved.
The leaders agreed that the format should develop a road map for the implementation of the Minsk agreements by the end of November 2016, which would detail the steps the conflicting sides need to take, their sequence and time frame.
On November 29, 2016, the summit was succeeded by a ministerial meeting, which failed to approve such a road map.
On February 18, 2017, the ministers met again, with no progress reported.
On June 11, 2018, "Normandy" ministerial talks took place in Berlin again, ending once again with no breakthrough in the crisis settlement.
On March 29, 2018, the Normandy four leaders reaffirmed the commitment to the Minsk accords in a joint statement.
Other than meetings and joint statements, the Normandy format has also seen telephone talks at the highest, ministerial and expert levels.
